“Yeah, I’ve got weasels, and they’re a real problem. The whole situation is bumming me out.”
“Weasels in the Attic” – are three interconnected episodes told by a man, a narrator without a name. His girl friend/wife wants to have a baby, but he avoids commitment. The episodes center around relationships as the narrator is struggling with his role of becoming a father himself.
Oyamada Hiroko (小山田 浩子) is a female Japanese writer born in Hiroshima in 1983. She is mostly known for her award winning books “The Factory” and “The Hole”. “Weasels in the Attic” was published in October 2022.
The first episode of “Weasels in the Attic” is about a man called Urabe, who has installed many fish tanks in his living room. Urabe owned a fish shop once, and moved the water tanks into his home after closing his shop down. Some tanks are used for fish breeding, mostly tropical fishes like discus. Urabe lives together with his girl friend and their newborn baby. They struggle with money problems but she is very generous on the other hand when she buys food and snacks for all. Urabe shows his visitors a pack of fish food, which he suddenly eats himself. He shrugs, as this is only dried shrimps. The episode is a memory. Urabe has died shortly before. The narrator was not a close friend, yet the visit was memorable. It leads him to questions about the meaning of life, relationships and the cycle of life.
The second episode is about another friend called Saiki and his wife Yoko, who moved together into a home in the countryside. The narrator and his wife are visiting them one day. During their stay at the country house they eat a meal containing “boar”. Yoko is telling them about the weasels in their attic and the problems they are having with it. In Japan weasels stand for supernatural powers and bad luck. They play a role in Japanese mythology.
At a second visit the narrator and his wife get stuck at the country house during a winter storm. Yoko has a baby this time. Saiki is a father now, and is acting mature. So, the narrator is slightly mocking his old friend. He also observes peculiar behavior of his own wife as she is acting strangely with the newborn child. She is cooing and talking to the baby childishly, wanting a baby herself. This time they eat “inarizushi” (sushi wrapped in fried tofu), a present from an old lady in the neighborhood. They call her a “hag”. The kind of old hag, who practices witchcraft.
In the guestroom the narrator finds some familiar looking fish tanks with tropical fishes. At the same night he has a nightmare of getting attacked by a big fish.
The narrator’s fascination with fish breeding and his observations are going alongside with his wife’s wish to have a baby together and him feeling pressured.
He distances himself from his environment, when he is just observing and not taking an active part in his relationship with his wife. He becomes passive. His wife also has no name. The three episodes are embellished with unusual eating scenes, sometimes becoming a little icky. All three episodes are observations of relationships.
Evaluation
“Weasels in the Attic” is a very short book: The narration style is condensed and things often remain vague, in parts enmeshed with dreams, memories or supernatural allusions, all which stand metaphorical for fear of growing up and fears of becoming a parent. As I read through the episodes, it was fast, too fast in my opinion and I was a little disappointed that it ended so quickly. There were some interesting ideas, which fell short in my opinion. For this review I read the book twice though, so that the beauty of the book unfolded for me on the second reading. In my opinion, it is altogether an interesting book.
Reviewed Title
Oyamada Hiroko: Weasels in the Attic. Translated by David Boyd. New Directions, 2022.
Other titles by the same author:
“The Factory” (工場) was published in Japanese in 2013. Translated by David Boyd (2019).
“The Hole” (穴) was published in Japanese in 2014, also translated by David Boyd (2020).
This book review was first published on Japan Kaleidoskop, a blog about Japanese literature and art. (April 13, 2023)
Japan Kaleidoskop 