An I-Novel

Minae Mizumura

Summary

Minae Mizumura’s An I-Novel is a semi-autobiographical work that takes place over the course of a single day in the 1980s. Minae is a Japanese expatriate graduate student who has lived in the United States for two decades but turned her back on the English language and American culture. After a phone call from her older sister reminds her that it is the twentieth anniversary of their family’s arrival in New York, she spends the day reflecting in solitude and over the phone with her sister about their life in the United States, trying to break the news that she has decided to go back to Japan and become a writer in her mother tongue.Published in 1995, this formally daring novel radically broke with Japanese literary tradition. It liberally incorporated English words and phrases, and the entire text was printed horizontally, to be read from left to right, rather than vertically and from right to left. In a luminous meditation on how a person becomes a writer, Mizumura transforms the “I-novel,” a Japanese confessional genre that toys with fictionalization. An I-Novel tells the story of two sisters while taking up urgent questions of identity, race, and language. Above all, it considers what it means to write in the era of the hegemony of English—and what it means to be a writer of Japanese in particular. Juliet Winters Carpenter masterfully renders a novel that once appeared untranslatable into English.

Available since: 03/02/2021.

2 Comments

24symbols EN

The bilingual novel that broke with Japanese literary tradition is now available in English. Twenty years after its publication in Japan, English readers finally may enjoy this experimental fictional autobiography. Minae Mizumura is one of Japan’s most acclaimed writers and playfully switches between English and Japanese in AN I-NOVEL. But no worries, even though some Japanese symbols have been kept when necessary, the novel is completely written in English and uses bolt letters to signal when English is used instead of Japanese in the original.

Uprooted from her Japanese home when twelve-years-old, Minae grew up in New York and always felt trapped between the two cultures. While her sister seemed to adapt easily to American life, Minae longed for Japanese traditions that have long become obsolete. On the 20th anniversary of their “Expodus”, Minae decides to return to Japan for good. She calls her sister to tell her the big news but instead of addressing the real subject they get lost in memories and it turns out that her sister feels just as confused about her cultural identity as does Minae.

A spectacular analysis of what it means to grow up in two very different cultures. And thanks to Juliet Winters Carpenter’s work, the bilingual experience has not been lost in translation. Discover more book recommendations on https://www.24symbols.com/24stories/en/the-best-books-of-the-moment/
24symbols EN

This book was featured as one of the best books of the moment. Have a look at our Magazine to discover our best books of the moment, a handpicked and periodically updated selection of the books you simply cannot miss: https://www.24symbols.com/24stories/en/the-best-books-of-the-moment/

About the author

Minae Mizumura

Minae Mizumura was born in Tokyo, moved to New York at the age of twelve, and studied French literature at Yale University. Acclaimed for her audacious experimentation and skillful storytelling,...

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