One chapter ends with, "Saying nothing, she turned and walked out of the room where she worked - the room in which she determined each day which thousand people would die." The next begins with, "It was Izanami's task to select who would die - a thousand people every day." In some myths, repetition can be songlike and beautiful. Natsuo Kirino is a Japanese author who has had four of her novels translated into English.Īkihiko Uemura/Courtesy of Grove Atlanticīut here, the power of the passage is ruined by a graceless explication: "Whenever a single entity was paired with its opposite, the value of both became clear from the contrast - and the mutual association enriched the meaning of both." Kirino is a chronic over-explainer, and the constant commentary often mars the dark simplicity of the story. She says of Izanami, "It would not be an overstatement to say that the fate she suffered is the fate that all women of this land must bear." That is, without question, the primary message of the novel: Women, by their very nature, must suffer. Namima, killed by her own husband, joins the vengeful goddess and becomes her priestess in the grim underworld. In revenge, she vows to kill 1,000 people every day, and in return he vows to impregnate 1,500 women every day. Unable to bear the sight of her rotting flesh, he flees, sealing the door behind him. After Izanami dies giving birth to the god of fire, Izanaki chases her into the underworld. Intertwined with the story of the sisters is that of the gods Izanami and Izanaki, who created Japan out of the drops of water at the end of a spear. Then, without warning or explanation, he strangles her. She flees the island in a boat with the man she has fallen in love with, and bears his child on the journey. Pretty Kamikuu ("Child of Gods") is chosen as the successor to the Oracle - which means Namima ("Woman amid the waves"), the "impure" sister, must tend the dead and show them the way to the underworld. On an island shaped like a teardrop, two sisters are born. At worst, it's a stiff, repetitive exercise in telling, not showing. How?Īt its best, Natsuo Kirino's The Goddess Chronicle is a dark and lovely feminist retelling of the Japanese creation myth. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Goddess Chronicle Author Natsuo Kirino
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