A Review: Scattered All Over the Earth (Scattered All Over the Earth #1)

Title of Work: Scattered All Over the Earth (Scattered All Over the Earth #1)
Author: Yōko Tawada
Format:
Published: 2018
Started:
Finished: 2022-05-25\

Posted: Goodreads
Rating: 2/5

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I’m relieved to finally be through with this novel - but it’s not all bad news.

The concept is interesting enough that I was floated into the middle chapters where the boring and underdeveloped characters started to flit around the (deliberately?) sparse plot. Yōko Tawada writes some beautiful passages, ushered in with carefully groomed scene - she won’t use more than she needs - and brimming with metaphors that make you stop and think “Huh, that really works here.” She definitely has the ability to develop relatable and interesting characters, as is evidenced by chapters eight and nine (my two favorites of the ten). I actually really enjoy how she spins her “what if” linguistic musings into the realm of the farcical. I think this was her true interest with the novel as the climate-changed-world backdrop is feathered in so lightly that neither the reader nor the characters feel alarm.

In the end, I’m not resentful to have read this - especially considering I haven’t read much from Japanese authors lately save Murakami and I’m trying to remedy this - but I’m delighted to be moving on to other books and likely won’t be returning for the further installments of the trilogy. It’s a shame because I really love how she uses the nuances of language as her playground and she’s got a real knack for metaphors (even translated to English from Japanese they’re so perfect sometimes… praise to the translator). This book just didn’t keep my attention when I needed it to.