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Jane,
I've made it my mission to crusade against pick 'n' mix culture - lambasting frenetic text messaging, channel surfing and stories so short that they actually induce ADD. Still, sometimes there's no escaping the beauty of little and often: exercise, dim sum, and Escalator, a fresh collection of short stories by Michael Gardiner.
The collection, composed by an itinerant Scotsman in Tokyo, has been compared to Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation and the strange, esoteric novels of Haruki Murakami. It's not much like either really, except they're all about modern Japan.
Murakami opens out a spiritual, insider's picture of the Japanese, while
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Gardiner picks at the culture in neat, forensic detail. And though Escalator and Translation are both authored by outsiders, Gardiner sidesteps the glossy neon vision of Tokyo that shone so brightly on screen. With stories like "Model", in which a student lives under 24-hour webcam surveillance to pay her way through college, Gardiner hints at dark subcultures lurking just below the surface
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in the land of Hello Kitty. On the other hand, tales like "Deai", about a young man's sad obsession with mobile phone dating services, are unexpectedly heartwarming, offering hope in an age of isolation.
Gardiner's neat prose has taken on many characteristics of his subject. His stories are phrased in a fresh, economical fashion. They sit side by side like tidy little parcels of sushi, and apart from "Jidohanbaiki" - a tale told by a vending machine - they are blessedly free of "artsy" literary devices.
You don't know Japan any better by the end, but you want to. Gardiner throws out enticing tidbits to nibble, leaving it up to you to make the meal. Sushi Saturday? x L
FIRST
EMAILED APRIL 6, 2006
 Last time: Broken Biscuits
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