The Diving Pool: Three Novellas
The first major English translation of one of contemporary Japan’s bestselling and most celebrated authors.
From Akutagawa Prize–winning author Yoko Ogawa comes a trio of novellas about love, motherhood, fertility, obsession, and how even the most innocent gestures contain a hairline crack of cruel intent.
A lonely teenage girl falls in love with her foster brother as she watches him leap from a high diving board into a pool—a peculiar infatuation that sends unexpected ripples through her life.
A young woman records the daily moods of her pregnant sister in a diary, taking meticulous note of a pregnancy that may or may not be a hallucination—but whose hallucination is it, hers or her sister’s?
A woman nostalgically visits her old college dormitory on the outskirts of Tokyo, a boardinghouse run by a mysterious triple amputee with one leg.
Hauntingly spare, beautiful, and twisted, The Diving Pool is a disquieting and at times darkly humorous collection of novellas about normal people who suddenly discover their own dark possibilities.
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Community Reviews
The Diving Pool is a collection of three short stories by Yoko Ogawa. This is the second work of hers I've read, the other being [b:The Memory Police|37004370|The Memory Police|Yōko Ogawa|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1544335119l/37004370._SY75_.jpg|7310932]. She has a very strong voice and style, and each of her works, while being unique in plot and characters, are obviously hers. One thing she does very well in every work is build tension. I am currently reading [b:Revenge|16032127|Revenge|Yōko Ogawa|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1349818757l/16032127._SY75_.jpg|6316882], and this holds true there too.
Since there are three stories in The Diving Pool, I will review them each separately.
The Diving Pool: 5/5
The titular story is also the story we start with. To be honest, I didn't really know what I was getting into when selecting this work. When I posted about this in the FB group 'Japanese Literature', someone mentioned that it can be disturbing. And it is! This story gives us the main character Aya who is obsessed with Jun, her foster brother. Aya's parents run an orphanage, and Jun is an orphan who has been there for over a decade, while Aya is the only child in the home who is not an orphan. She obsessively observes his body, thinks about him frequently, and stalks his diving practices. She isn't quite normal in other ways, but that feeling gradually sets in. Mixed with her observations of the weather are cruel thoughts. I like this approach, because to her, this cruelty is as intrinsic to her being as noticing the weather is to other people - does that make sense? It isn't singled out as "look, she had a cruel thought, seeeee!", and that makes it so unnerving. The story gets darker as it progresses, and the ending left me feeling like my breath was still held. I love what Ogawa can do in 50-60 pages.
Pregnancy Diary: 4/5
Next is Pregnancy Diary, a story that follows two sisters: one is pregnant, and the other is keeping a journal logging the pregnancy. This story focuses heavily on food imagery, as most of Ogawa's work does, including the story above and below. However, it is heavier in this story due to the sister's morning sickness. The narrator is cold in a more clinical way than Aya was in the first story. Aya's cruelty had heat to her anger in a way that made me think of sadism, whereas this main character makes me think of sociopathy. The ending left me with many questions and wanting the story to continue.
Dormitory: 4/5
The final story is about a woman whose cousin needs a place to stay while in college. She contacts the manager of her old dormitory, and the story focuses on the two of them. This story gave me the heebie jeebies, and again left me with many questions.
Once I finished the book I sat blinking for a few moments and then went to sleep lol. I feel like I need to read full academic essays about each story. This was a very good read, was easier to read than even The Memory Police, which I also liked.
I picked this up on a day when I was at the library on a mission. I had my list - authors, titles, call numbers. I had all the books I came for. And then I let my eyes wander. I actually saw [b:Revenge|66855|Revenge|Stephen Fry|https:d.gr-assets.com/books/1388354443s/66855.jpg|420042] first. I then pulled this one off the shelf as well and couldn't take my eyes off of the cover.
WHAT A DELIGHT IT IS TO FIND A NEW BOOK AND AUTHOR - BOTH OF WHICH ARE PRETTY DAMN AMAZING.
Ogawa has a really simple yet complex yet gorgeous way of writing. I kept feeling like I knew what was going on and then...WHOA. Do I have any idea what is going on?
Each novella is a little (darkly) humorous, a little disturbing, and quite unforgettable.
4 Stars.
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