Yasutaka Tsutsui :: Bullseye!
A new collection of stories by Yasutaka Tsutsui, famed in Japan and worldwide for his darkly humorous, satirical handling of a vast range of themes central to the human condition.
Although often criticized for his treatment of "taboo" subjects such as disabilities, the Emperor, and old age, he is also recognized as one of the founders of post-modern science fiction in Japan.
A number of his works have been published to widespread acclaim in English including The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Salmonella Men on Planet Porno, and Paprika.
Contents
- Bullseye
- Call for the Devil!
- The Onlooker
- It’s My Baby
- Zarathustra on Mars
- Having a Laugh
- The Good Old Days
- Running Man
- Sleepy Summer Afternoon
- Cross Section
- Narcissism
- Sadism
- The Wind
- A Vanishing Dimension
- Oh! King Lear
- Meta Noir
- The Agency Maid
- The Night they Played Hide and Seek
- The Countdown Clock
- Animated Realism
Reviews
- Tsutsui plays with unusual perspectives ... Bullseye! is an entertaining collection of imaginative and often amusing stories, with a lot of clever (and also many creatively bizarre and enjoyably unsettling) twists to them.
—Michael Orthofer, The Complete Review - Welcome to the bizarre world of Tsutsui, one of the nation’s leading sci-fi novelists and a writer of metafiction. [...] We know everyone has a dark side — it could be called madness — but hides it in daily life to avoid trouble. Maybe readers unleash their frustrations by exploring Tsutsui’s imaginary world without taboos.
—Rie Tagawa, Japan News - A unique collection of short stories ... satirical and dark stories that often comment on what is typically considered as “taboo” subjects.
The stories present a fresh outlook on the human condition conveying dark humor and satire into commentary with at times absurd details
and eccentric plots. Each story is more surprising than the last with endings that you won’t see coming. ... For those that crave a literary
read with absurdity and commentary on social topics Bullseye! is the perfect fit.
—Elizabeth Konkel, Tulsa Book Review - ...filled with both bizarre and mysterious stories, as well as stories that will push the average reader beyond their comfort zone. ...
Driver has done a fantastic job of compiling the many styles of Tsutsui into one book of eclectic short stories.
—Christi Lyle, Manhattan Book Review - Stories in the collection span the length of Tsutsui’s career as a writer and definitely fall into the magically real/absurdist line of fiction.
There are a range of characters and voices in evidence in the collection, and one is never quite sure which direction is down with
some of the narrators, which lends to the heady atmosphere of the stories, all of which is bolstered by philosophy and psychology.
—Rebecca Demarest, San Francisco Book Review - This remarkable collection of short stories is more skillfully curated than merely collected.
...highly recommended not only for those who enjoy Japanese fiction, but also those looking for a unique
voice writing thought-provoking, darkly humorous, and insightful narratives.
—Todd Shimoda, Asian Review of Books - ...an eclectic, postmodern rush that flies from comedic and satirical to grave and surreal ... [and]
seeks to constantly push against the established notions of what literature is.
—World Literature Today - ...was it worth the wait? Definitely - and the first story alone makes it a must read…
Tsutsui is known for being hard to pin down in terms of style, and this collection showcases a
variety of approaches and genres. It’s a book that’s left me with plenty of vivid images as a souvenir.
—Tony's Reading List - Yasutaka Tsutsui’s imaginative stories evoke societies that teeter between the mundane and chaos, the familiar and the bizarre.
The genres skip from science fiction to surreal comedy, and Driver’s translation successfully emulates the colloquial, madcap language Tsutsui uses for his off-kilter characters and settings.
—Alyssa Smith, Japan Times - Tsutsui is instinctively transgressive in the French surrealist tradition of Georges Bataille and Le Chien Andalou. He uses humour aggressively, to subvert reality and normality.
The subjects range from murderous geriatrics to sex robots, from a death clock to an Olympic marathon that goes on for half a century with nobody caring. ... highly recommended
—Peter Tasker, A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Japanese Surreality - Tsutsui is a master of mood and atmosphere, patiently building up a seemingly-innocent scene until, before you realize it, all innocence is irrevocably lost.
And when Tsutsui decides to play with his readers, the resulting stories are hilarious.
—Rachel Cordasco, Speculative Fiction in Translation
Details
- Pages: 236
- Trade paperback 5" x 8" (127mm x 203mm)
- ISBN: 978-4-902075-86-1
- Cover: Youchan Ito （Togoru Co., Ltd.）
- Amazon
- Amazon Japan
- Also available for Amazon Kindle.
- Bookstores and university buyers (contact us directly)
Yasutaka Tsutsui, born in Osaka in 1934, is Japan’s pre-eminent writer of metafiction. Over the last six decades, he has produced dozens of novels, hundreds of
short stories and numerous other works of literature, many of which have won national acclaim. Among others, he won the Tanizaki Prize in 1987, the 1981 Izumi Kyoka award,
the 1989 Kawabata Yasunari award, and the 1992 Nihon SF Taisho Award. His latest and probably last full-length novel Monado no Ryōiki won the Mainichi Art Award in 2017.
Though a cult hero and well-known TV personality, Tsutsui lives virtually incognito in Tokyo’s bustling Harajuku district.
Photo: Carles Mercader Fulquet
Andrew Driver, born in Oxford in 1954, has been translating Japanese for nearly three decades. He is a former resident of Tokyo, where he kick-started the Hysterick Theatre project and featured in the radio drama Woody’s Week in the 1990s. In 2005 he conceived, compiled and translated Salmonella Men on Planet Porno, the first English-language collection of Tsutsui short stories, followed by the novel Paprika. Currently based in Oxfordshire, England.