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Inheritance from Mother
Award-winning novelist Minae Mizumura demystifies the notion of the selfless Japanese mother and the adult daughter honor-bound to care for her.
Mitsuki Katsura, a Japanese woman in her mid-fifties, is a French-language instructor at a private university in Tokyo. Her husband, whom she met in Paris, is a professor at another private university. He is having an affair with a much younger woman.
In addition to her husband's infidelity, Mitsuki must deal with her ailing eighty-something mother, a demanding, self-absorbed woman who is far from the image of the patient, self-sacrificing Japanese matriarch. Mitsuki finds herself dreaming of the day when her mother will finally pass on. While doing everything she can to ensure her mother's happiness, she grows weary of the responsibilities of a doting daughter and worries she is sacrificing her chance to find fulfillment in her middle age.
Inheritance from Mother not only offers insight into a complex and paradoxical culture, but is also a profound work about mothers and daughters, marriage, old age, and the resilience of women.
Mitsuki Katsura, a Japanese woman in her mid-fifties, is a French-language instructor at a private university in Tokyo. Her husband, whom she met in Paris, is a professor at another private university. He is having an affair with a much younger woman.
In addition to her husband's infidelity, Mitsuki must deal with her ailing eighty-something mother, a demanding, self-absorbed woman who is far from the image of the patient, self-sacrificing Japanese matriarch. Mitsuki finds herself dreaming of the day when her mother will finally pass on. While doing everything she can to ensure her mother's happiness, she grows weary of the responsibilities of a doting daughter and worries she is sacrificing her chance to find fulfillment in her middle age.
Inheritance from Mother not only offers insight into a complex and paradoxical culture, but is also a profound work about mothers and daughters, marriage, old age, and the resilience of women.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2012
167 people are currently reading
2817 people want to read
About the author
Minae Mizumura
15 books146 followersMinae Mizumura (水村 美苗 Mizumura Minae, born 1951) is a novelist currently writing in the Japanese language.
Educated in the US, she wrote her first published work in the English language, a scholarly essay on the literary criticism of Paul de Man. She is often portrayed as a Japanese novelist who questions the conventional boundaries of national literature. Her novels include Light and Darkness Continued, An I-Novel, and A True Novel, which has been selected for the Japanese Literature Publishing Project, a national program to promote translations of Japanese literature. She also writes essays and literary criticism in major newspapers and journals. Many of Minae Mizumura's works have been described as highly readable and often entertaining, while, at the same time, resonating with historical significance. They are also known for their formalistic innovations, such as making use of unusual printing formats and inserting English texts and photographic illustrations. Because she returned to Japan as an adult and chose to write in the Japanese language despite her coming of age in the United States and her education in the English language, critics have often noted her particular love for Japanese language and her commitment to Japanese literature. Her analysis and observations on the demise of the Japanese language, detailed in her book of criticism called The Fall of the Japanese Language in the Age of English, gained much attention from the mainstream media as well as the Internet. In the same book, she wrote of the significance of preserving the great literary tradition established during the time of building modern Japan.
Minae Mizumura has taught at Princeton University, the University of Michigan and Stanford University. She was a resident novelist in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 2003. She has won the 1991 Agency for Cultural Affairs New Artist Award, the 1996 Noma New Artist Award, and the 2003 Yomiuri Prize for Literature. Minae Mizumura now resides in Tokyo, Japan.
Source: wikipedia
Educated in the US, she wrote her first published work in the English language, a scholarly essay on the literary criticism of Paul de Man. She is often portrayed as a Japanese novelist who questions the conventional boundaries of national literature. Her novels include Light and Darkness Continued, An I-Novel, and A True Novel, which has been selected for the Japanese Literature Publishing Project, a national program to promote translations of Japanese literature. She also writes essays and literary criticism in major newspapers and journals. Many of Minae Mizumura's works have been described as highly readable and often entertaining, while, at the same time, resonating with historical significance. They are also known for their formalistic innovations, such as making use of unusual printing formats and inserting English texts and photographic illustrations. Because she returned to Japan as an adult and chose to write in the Japanese language despite her coming of age in the United States and her education in the English language, critics have often noted her particular love for Japanese language and her commitment to Japanese literature. Her analysis and observations on the demise of the Japanese language, detailed in her book of criticism called The Fall of the Japanese Language in the Age of English, gained much attention from the mainstream media as well as the Internet. In the same book, she wrote of the significance of preserving the great literary tradition established during the time of building modern Japan.
Minae Mizumura has taught at Princeton University, the University of Michigan and Stanford University. She was a resident novelist in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 2003. She has won the 1991 Agency for Cultural Affairs New Artist Award, the 1996 Noma New Artist Award, and the 2003 Yomiuri Prize for Literature. Minae Mizumura now resides in Tokyo, Japan.
Source: wikipedia
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May 15, 2017
Mother’s Day is celebrated in the United States this past weekend, and in some ways, this novel could be viewed as a kind of delicious dream fantasy for just that kind of mature, thoughtful, caring women who have been around the block a few times. It introduces us to the intimate and internal lives of Japanese wives and mothers, some of whom were thought to suffer in silence as part of their cultural mystique. The main character is not a mother; Mitsuki is a wife, and the daughter who cares for her aging mother. Her sister Natsuki was beautiful, talented, and made a fortuitous marriage to a wealthy man. There had never been any hint Natsuki would take care of the things that needed doing.
Throughout Part One we experience the calculus a family member must make when an aging relative suddenly becomes unable to care for themselves as independent adults. What makes this particularly interesting to those who haven’t gone through it before is the barrage of decisions that blast apart any privacy a person might reasonably expect, even in a family, and how this affects individuals experiencing the trauma and those trying to help out.
If Mitsuki sounds a little resistant to the demands placed on her when talking to herself at times, she is already the poster child for trying to make dying a positive experience for everyone involved, despite the impersonal nature of hospital care and the uncertainties involved in geriatric health. Complicating the picture of her mother’s illness and death is the fact Mitsuki newly discovers her husband has a somewhat serious dalliance with a younger woman. Bad timing for the husband.
Part Two is in some ways the respite after the storm, and in others a legitimate Part 2 of decision-making and planning for big changes. Mitsuki engages our every sense as she describes her visit, during winter, to a neglected lakeside hotel posing as a fake Swiss villa. She remembers the place from her childhood. Several other people show up at the same time, for an extended ten-day respite before Christmas. When a local psychic, “the sort who bleaches their hair blond and rides a Harley Davidson,” predicts one of the long-stay hotel guests is there to commit suicide in the lake, the attention of hoteliers and guests are riveted.
Mitsuki is there to sort out her options concerning a husband who serially strays, her feelings regarding the difficult time with her mother, and how she can still have a life that is interesting and fulfilling, despite its losses. This part of the novel has many characteristics of the successful mystery novel: a lonely heroine, a villa in decline, an overly solicitous staff, the proximity and possibility of death, a bunch of similarly stranded folks including at least one handsome eligible bachelor. Laced through it all are the experiences, constraints, and history of both westernized easterners and traditional Japanese, endlessly intriguing people with whom we share a bond and yet admire for their exoticism and differentness.
The clarity with which Mitsuki addresses her issues, her deliberate decision-making, her bare honesty to herself about motives and options, her interest in pursuing meaningful engagement is inspiring both to the recently bereaved and to those who have faced these issues, successfully or not. If there is a best-girlfriend reveal to the storyline, it is not unwelcome. While Natsuki sounded wistful and maybe even envious about everything working out for Mitsuki before it actually does, we readers reserve our celebration, knowing the odds of the pieces coming together with no errors.
Minae Mizumura studied literature in the United States, at Yale. She wrote this novel in Japanese, and after an earlier novel described in an interview with Bookslut writer Corinna Cliff how the Japanese language became even more beautiful and desirable to her after studying English.
Throughout Part One we experience the calculus a family member must make when an aging relative suddenly becomes unable to care for themselves as independent adults. What makes this particularly interesting to those who haven’t gone through it before is the barrage of decisions that blast apart any privacy a person might reasonably expect, even in a family, and how this affects individuals experiencing the trauma and those trying to help out.
If Mitsuki sounds a little resistant to the demands placed on her when talking to herself at times, she is already the poster child for trying to make dying a positive experience for everyone involved, despite the impersonal nature of hospital care and the uncertainties involved in geriatric health. Complicating the picture of her mother’s illness and death is the fact Mitsuki newly discovers her husband has a somewhat serious dalliance with a younger woman. Bad timing for the husband.
Part Two is in some ways the respite after the storm, and in others a legitimate Part 2 of decision-making and planning for big changes. Mitsuki engages our every sense as she describes her visit, during winter, to a neglected lakeside hotel posing as a fake Swiss villa. She remembers the place from her childhood. Several other people show up at the same time, for an extended ten-day respite before Christmas. When a local psychic, “the sort who bleaches their hair blond and rides a Harley Davidson,” predicts one of the long-stay hotel guests is there to commit suicide in the lake, the attention of hoteliers and guests are riveted.
Mitsuki is there to sort out her options concerning a husband who serially strays, her feelings regarding the difficult time with her mother, and how she can still have a life that is interesting and fulfilling, despite its losses. This part of the novel has many characteristics of the successful mystery novel: a lonely heroine, a villa in decline, an overly solicitous staff, the proximity and possibility of death, a bunch of similarly stranded folks including at least one handsome eligible bachelor. Laced through it all are the experiences, constraints, and history of both westernized easterners and traditional Japanese, endlessly intriguing people with whom we share a bond and yet admire for their exoticism and differentness.
The clarity with which Mitsuki addresses her issues, her deliberate decision-making, her bare honesty to herself about motives and options, her interest in pursuing meaningful engagement is inspiring both to the recently bereaved and to those who have faced these issues, successfully or not. If there is a best-girlfriend reveal to the storyline, it is not unwelcome. While Natsuki sounded wistful and maybe even envious about everything working out for Mitsuki before it actually does, we readers reserve our celebration, knowing the odds of the pieces coming together with no errors.
Minae Mizumura studied literature in the United States, at Yale. She wrote this novel in Japanese, and after an earlier novel described in an interview with Bookslut writer Corinna Cliff how the Japanese language became even more beautiful and desirable to her after studying English.
"Nevertheless, now that I have had more experience with both languages, I'm more sensitive to the uniqueness of Japanese. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the language for me is how its writing uses three kinds of signs: Chinese characters -- which mostly function as ideograms -- and two sets of phonograms. The resulting text contains an embarrassment of riches impossible to replicate in other languages. I'll try to explain it. Let's say you are reading a page describing a flower garden. Names of flowers jump out at you. They are rendered in complex Chinese characters that can't help standing out as they are embedded in phonograms much simpler in form. And since flower names in ideograms usually have poetic connotations, looking at the page, it really seems as if you are looking at a garden filled with clusters of fragrant and beautiful flowers."Mizumura’s experience with English (and French!) culture and language make this a hugely successful crossover novel featuring European, American, and Asian influences in a rich feast. Gustav Flaubert’s Madame Bovary becomes practically an incantation, it receives mention so often. Readers are advised to revisit that work to see how it is used in this case to add an extra layer of depth.
February 3, 2017
“Today, Mother died. From then on she waited for the day when she might say those words out loud for real.” Those first three words are mentioned repeatedly in Inheritance From Mother” and they suggest the opening of Camus’ The Stranger. The question is: is the connection deliberate?
The answer is almost certainly “yes.” Camus believed that individual lives and human existence have no rational meaning or order; rather, individuals attempt to find that order where none exists. Indeed, that is the case here. Mitsuki, the daughter of an imperious and demanding mother named Noriko, is forced to cater to her as she ages. The author writes, “Japanese women lived longer every year, lingering like specters…anyone caring for an aging parent could plainly see that growing old was an assault not just on body and mind but on all five senses. Was that all that awaited one at life’s end?”
The “inheritance” of the title is both pragmatic and emotional. Mitsuki’s husband is cheating on her with a younger woman and she is gradually realizing that there may never have been any love between them. Mitsuki needs her mother’s inheritance. Yet, in a sense, her entire life has been an unwelcome inheritance; Noriko creates a feeling of unworthiness in Mitsuki, particularly when comparing her to her more attractive and talented older sister Natsuki.
There are a lot of themes here, perhaps too many, as the novel unfolds and then circles back, begrudgingly surrendering details from the past, teasing out the significance of incidents from the present. Divided into two halves, the first half focuses on the resentful and dutiful daughter waiting in limbo, performing her responsibilities. As the adult daughter of a 90+ year old mother, the “long goodbye” – complete with medical personnel who are determined to deprive Noriko of the dignity of a “good death” – is astoundingly accurate, even uncomfortably so. The second half – Mitsuki embraces the true meaning of her inheritance – is sometimes too carefully plotted but provides relief from the grimness.
There’s so much “meat” here – the symbiosis of mother and daughter, the harness of cultural and social class, the mores of Japanese life, and the legacy of literature (The Stranger, Madame Bovary and a lesser-known book (for Americans) entitled The Golden Demon are all evoked. Inheritance From Mother is, ultimately, an extraordinarily impressive book that could benefit from a second reading to truly get all its tendrils. I can’t say I loved it but I certainly admired it greatly.
July 10, 2021
Last week I spent an hour driving to and from a library in my area to get a second volume of 'A True Novel' because I was nearing the close of the first volume and I wanted to continue reading on and I did not want to wait one second to do that! And I very much liked the two-volume work by Mizumura, and it was reflected in my enthusiastic review. Well…. 🙁
This was not so much to my liking. Imagine there is a wife (Mitsuki) and a husband (Tetsuo) and the wife has parents and grandparents and a sister (Natsuki) and the husband has parents. And the mother (Noriko) of the wife is not so nice at times but then who is, and she grows old and cantankerous, and the wife has to take care of her and visit her in a nursing home and then a hospital and then a hospice and the mother dies. Oh, and imagine the wife finds out that her husband, who is out of town, is cheating on her with a younger woman.
This is not really anything new, right? Parent grows old and frail and sick, and the child has to take care of the parent and it can get uber-frustrating and stressful, etc. and people do have affairs….
447 pages? I think the only thing that made me read it to the last page… well actually 2 things: 1. I am reluctant to write a less-than-glowing review of a book that I do not read in its entirety. 2. I want to read another novel of hers that was just published in translated form this year and I have heard good things about it (An I-Novel, Columbia Press, 2021; translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter).
Whether we like it or not, we are told the life history of the wife, and then the life history of the mother, and then the life history of her mother and father….and then let’s switch to the husband Tetsuo and let’s shake his family tree and find out about them… WHO IN THE HELL CARES??? 😣
I can’t figure it out. The ‘A True-Novel’ was so good and creative and captivating. I was really surprised by this. Unpleasantly. 🙁
Notes:
• The book was divided into two parts. There are 33 chapters per part, each chapter about 5 pages in length with a title heading. This was originally published as a serial novel (Haha no isan—Shinbun shōsetsu) in the Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri Shinbun (January 2010-April 2011). Within this novel, there is a serial novel (unfinished) that is part of the narrative, The Golden Demon, by Ozaki Kōyō (1897).
• Wow….this is interesting…..her serial novel reached 10 million people!!! Yikes! That’s impressive! 😮 Maybe I should shut my pie-hole about this novel…. 🙁 ‘The roman-feuilleton (serial novel) has a long history in Japan, perhaps even lengthier than in France, its country of origin. Even today, all four of Japan’s large general-interest national daily papers have a column permanently devoted to the shimbun shôsetsu (newspaper novel), a short numbered and illustrated installment from an original piece of fiction that runs an average of six months. These four papers claim a total daily circulation of nearly 25 million, while the longest running, the Yomiuri Shimbun (founded in 1874), alone prints nearly 10 million copies and is thus reckoned to be the world’s best-selling daily newspaper.’ From: Japan and the Internationalization of the Serial Fiction Market, by Graham Law and Norimasa Norita, Book History, Volume 6, pages 109-125, 2003, Johns Hopkins University Press).
• This is from the 3rd review below: A dying genre of fiction, the newspaper novel is largely read by middle-aged women, and Mizumura’s story elucidates the nuanced complexity of being a woman of a certain age in Japanese society. The female mind-body is on full view, with all its desires and disappointments, vitality and indignity. Mizumura’s insights edge on brutality, but in the best way possible, demonstrating that a middle-aged woman is more than capable of being our novel’s protagonist.
Reviews (aside from the first reviewer questioning the length of the novel all 3 reviews are positive which just goes to show you…I don’t know what it goes to show you…. I’m the outlier…again! 😐:
• https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/09/bo...
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
• https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/b...
This was not so much to my liking. Imagine there is a wife (Mitsuki) and a husband (Tetsuo) and the wife has parents and grandparents and a sister (Natsuki) and the husband has parents. And the mother (Noriko) of the wife is not so nice at times but then who is, and she grows old and cantankerous, and the wife has to take care of her and visit her in a nursing home and then a hospital and then a hospice and the mother dies. Oh, and imagine the wife finds out that her husband, who is out of town, is cheating on her with a younger woman.
This is not really anything new, right? Parent grows old and frail and sick, and the child has to take care of the parent and it can get uber-frustrating and stressful, etc. and people do have affairs….
447 pages? I think the only thing that made me read it to the last page… well actually 2 things: 1. I am reluctant to write a less-than-glowing review of a book that I do not read in its entirety. 2. I want to read another novel of hers that was just published in translated form this year and I have heard good things about it (An I-Novel, Columbia Press, 2021; translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter).
Whether we like it or not, we are told the life history of the wife, and then the life history of the mother, and then the life history of her mother and father….and then let’s switch to the husband Tetsuo and let’s shake his family tree and find out about them… WHO IN THE HELL CARES??? 😣
I can’t figure it out. The ‘A True-Novel’ was so good and creative and captivating. I was really surprised by this. Unpleasantly. 🙁
Notes:
• The book was divided into two parts. There are 33 chapters per part, each chapter about 5 pages in length with a title heading. This was originally published as a serial novel (Haha no isan—Shinbun shōsetsu) in the Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri Shinbun (January 2010-April 2011). Within this novel, there is a serial novel (unfinished) that is part of the narrative, The Golden Demon, by Ozaki Kōyō (1897).
• Wow….this is interesting…..her serial novel reached 10 million people!!! Yikes! That’s impressive! 😮 Maybe I should shut my pie-hole about this novel…. 🙁 ‘The roman-feuilleton (serial novel) has a long history in Japan, perhaps even lengthier than in France, its country of origin. Even today, all four of Japan’s large general-interest national daily papers have a column permanently devoted to the shimbun shôsetsu (newspaper novel), a short numbered and illustrated installment from an original piece of fiction that runs an average of six months. These four papers claim a total daily circulation of nearly 25 million, while the longest running, the Yomiuri Shimbun (founded in 1874), alone prints nearly 10 million copies and is thus reckoned to be the world’s best-selling daily newspaper.’ From: Japan and the Internationalization of the Serial Fiction Market, by Graham Law and Norimasa Norita, Book History, Volume 6, pages 109-125, 2003, Johns Hopkins University Press).
• This is from the 3rd review below: A dying genre of fiction, the newspaper novel is largely read by middle-aged women, and Mizumura’s story elucidates the nuanced complexity of being a woman of a certain age in Japanese society. The female mind-body is on full view, with all its desires and disappointments, vitality and indignity. Mizumura’s insights edge on brutality, but in the best way possible, demonstrating that a middle-aged woman is more than capable of being our novel’s protagonist.
Reviews (aside from the first reviewer questioning the length of the novel all 3 reviews are positive which just goes to show you…I don’t know what it goes to show you…. I’m the outlier…again! 😐:
• https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/09/bo...
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
• https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/b...
July 6, 2018
Do you have more happiness than you know how to handle? Has delight become a real problem for you? Do you wake with a smile, whistle while you work, travel your miles with a bounce in your step? Are you so filled with merriment that the sheer exhilaration of your good humor threatens to derail every serious conversation you manage to enter into? Is every task a wonder? Every mood an enchantment? Is your rejoicing heart on the constant verge of burst? Are you now, or have you ever been, desperate for the means to take the edge off your joy?
Well then, please, allow me to introduce you to Minae Mizumura.
Ms. Mizumura is a Japanese novelist of renown. Her talent is prodigious. Her voice is clear, concise and evocative. The attention she pays to her craft is profound. She knows, precisely, how to hit a reader's sweet spot...and she uses this knowledge to take you down.
Inheritance from Mother introduces us to Mitsuki Katsura, a middle-aged woman of Tokyo whose life has been a long string of poor choices and missed opportunities. Resentment writhes within her. She is bitter of the sister who was preferred, the mother who was selfish, the husband with his irksome proclivity to hunt for a better bed. Yet with all the rancor she feels, all the misery she knows, her actions remain those of the dutiful sibling, daughter and wife. Repressing. Refraining. Remembering. Perhaps when this mother dies - this broken mother in a hospital bed with her tubes and her gurgling and her fearful eyes - perhaps when she dies and the money divides, relief will descend. Something must end, yes? Something.
Looking to put the brakes on your bliss? This will do it.
Well then, please, allow me to introduce you to Minae Mizumura.
Ms. Mizumura is a Japanese novelist of renown. Her talent is prodigious. Her voice is clear, concise and evocative. The attention she pays to her craft is profound. She knows, precisely, how to hit a reader's sweet spot...and she uses this knowledge to take you down.
Inheritance from Mother introduces us to Mitsuki Katsura, a middle-aged woman of Tokyo whose life has been a long string of poor choices and missed opportunities. Resentment writhes within her. She is bitter of the sister who was preferred, the mother who was selfish, the husband with his irksome proclivity to hunt for a better bed. Yet with all the rancor she feels, all the misery she knows, her actions remain those of the dutiful sibling, daughter and wife. Repressing. Refraining. Remembering. Perhaps when this mother dies - this broken mother in a hospital bed with her tubes and her gurgling and her fearful eyes - perhaps when she dies and the money divides, relief will descend. Something must end, yes? Something.
Looking to put the brakes on your bliss? This will do it.
April 10, 2017
Originally published as a "newspaper novel" over a 2-year period, this engrossing novel consists of 66 short chapters, creating its strength and paradoxically, its weakness. Its strength in that the length made possible the depth of the examination of a 50ish woman dealing with two of life's greatest challenges at the same time. The inherent weakness lies in the fact that due to its original form, there was quite a bit of repetition that would not have been present in a conventionally published novel. Although are many characters, focus is primarily on Mitsuki, who, along with her more affluent but less stable sister, is caring for her egotistical dragon of a mother whose increasing dementia is causing her to make more difficult demands, but is never satisfied ("Her mother would never be happier no matter how much she tried to do for her, and this realization produced in her sense of futility that added to her exhaustion."). Her entire life she had been second fiddle to her more beautiful older sister, but now found herself shouldering most of the burden of caring for their mother. In addition, she discovers her husband, on sabbatical in Viet Nam, has another, younger woman in his life, and her sense of worth, fragile to begin with, is eroding at an alarming rate.
Although the mother's death is dealt with in the first chapter, the rest of Part I lays out the backstory of these three woman, their complex history, and, most notably, the cultural mores of Japan family life in the post-WWII era. In the second half, Mitsuki uses some of her inheritance to spend several weeks in a mountain inn, taking stock of her future as dictated by her past, and as inspired by her emerging independence. I loved this book, all nearly 500 pages, despite the repetitions.
Although the mother's death is dealt with in the first chapter, the rest of Part I lays out the backstory of these three woman, their complex history, and, most notably, the cultural mores of Japan family life in the post-WWII era. In the second half, Mitsuki uses some of her inheritance to spend several weeks in a mountain inn, taking stock of her future as dictated by her past, and as inspired by her emerging independence. I loved this book, all nearly 500 pages, despite the repetitions.
March 30, 2017
After finishing this novel, I asked myself if I would have enjoyed it as much if the main character had been an American, and the story took place in the United States. Definitely not, I thought. In fact, I would have never even read it if it was an American story. Who wants to read a 464 page book about a depressed, chronically fatigued middle-aged woman, who is dealing with a difficult, slowly dying mother; a cheating husband; sad memories of her father’s final years; flashbacks to her childhood where her sister was the pampered daughter; and worries about her financial future if she gets a divorce?
Certainly there are readers who do want to read about such a protagonist, but I’m not one of them. What makes this story so interesting, as well as enchanting at times, is it’s a Japanese story. While there are some similarities, of course, between a Japanese woman and an American woman going through all that trauma, there are many, many differences. A middle-aged woman in Japan, life in Japan, the history of Japan, the landscape of Japan . . . it’s a whole different world for the most part. Other than all the details of the elder mother’s slow death, the story never ceased to intrigue me, and 464 pages didn't seem that long at all.
(Note: I received a free copy of this book from Amazon Vine.)
Certainly there are readers who do want to read about such a protagonist, but I’m not one of them. What makes this story so interesting, as well as enchanting at times, is it’s a Japanese story. While there are some similarities, of course, between a Japanese woman and an American woman going through all that trauma, there are many, many differences. A middle-aged woman in Japan, life in Japan, the history of Japan, the landscape of Japan . . . it’s a whole different world for the most part. Other than all the details of the elder mother’s slow death, the story never ceased to intrigue me, and 464 pages didn't seem that long at all.
(Note: I received a free copy of this book from Amazon Vine.)
August 30, 2017
This is my favorite book from the summer. Despite the bummer of a subject—woman in her mid-fifties caring for her dying mother while realizing her long marriage is over—I finished the book feeling nothing but comfort and connection. I’ve realized that my favorite novels tend to be those that weave generations of a family into a particular place as well as into the story—I think because it feels less contrived and I’m able to more deeply enter its world and the lives of the characters. This book does that, and so did Mizumura’s last (two-volume!) novel, A TRUE NOVEL, which I also loved. Unlike a lot of American fiction, INHERITANCE FROM MOTHER never feels pretentious, clever, or ironic; and it doesn’t read as though Mizumura wrote it for a particular market. I never knew how hungry I was for books like this until I found her. For that matter, I didn’t know anyone was writing books like this! The fact that the novel is set in Japan and translated from Japanese makes it that much more beautiful and alive. Mizumura’s intimate but restrained prose allows for the mundane pace of real life, which is something else I love about her writing and may result from the fact that INHERITANCE FROM MOTHER was originally published as a serial novel in a Japanese newspaper. What a wonderful book. (And now I'm re-reading Madame Bovary because it was mentioned so often in INHERITANCE.)
October 22, 2021
Mitzuki es una mujer de mediana edad que está en una gran transición en su vida: su madre ha enfermado y tiene que cuidarla, a la par que descubre que su esposo, Tetsuo, la está engañando. Es claro que estos cambios han hecho daño a Mitzuki, pero también es una oportunidad para redescubrirse.
Es la primera vez que me encuentro una novela que fue creada por entregas y que se nota, ya que en la primera parte los capítulos se sienten y leen ajenos, sin mencionar que son una serie de anécdotas, dispersas. No obstante, ¿No funciona así la memoria?
Ignoro mucho si Mizumura escribió esto pensando en occidente, ya que las referencias están ahí, y sobre todo la forma de narrar muchos de los rituales japoneses me hacen llegar a esa conclusión, y se agradece.
Uno puede identificarse perfectamente con Mitzuki, y sus problemas con su madre, debido al desplazamiento por su otra hija, Natzuki, y por las exigencias hacia sus hijas, y extravagancias en su actuar. Es una novela tan familiar con quién lee que puede llegar a la redención igual que Mitzuki.
Es la primera vez que me encuentro una novela que fue creada por entregas y que se nota, ya que en la primera parte los capítulos se sienten y leen ajenos, sin mencionar que son una serie de anécdotas, dispersas. No obstante, ¿No funciona así la memoria?
Ignoro mucho si Mizumura escribió esto pensando en occidente, ya que las referencias están ahí, y sobre todo la forma de narrar muchos de los rituales japoneses me hacen llegar a esa conclusión, y se agradece.
Uno puede identificarse perfectamente con Mitzuki, y sus problemas con su madre, debido al desplazamiento por su otra hija, Natzuki, y por las exigencias hacia sus hijas, y extravagancias en su actuar. Es una novela tan familiar con quién lee que puede llegar a la redención igual que Mitzuki.
September 24, 2022
An instant classic. Mizumura traces, in sixty-six chapters of fine-grained description, the decline of the demanding, selfish mother Katsura Noriko (“she had become a mass of sorrows and frustrations barely comprehensible to herself”), and the impact of her death on her two daughters, Mitsuki and Natsuki.
Throughout, we see the action through the eyes of the younger daughter Mitsuki, as she recalls her privileged childhood, period of study in Paris, marriage to a university academic, and its unravelling. These are combined with minute attention to contemporary detail—what you get when you sell the family land in central Tokyo, how much is left after you’ve paid for aged care, the price of a funeral, how a couple might split their assets if they divorce, the cost of apartments, both new and already-lived-in, how much money a woman might need to live on when she’s retired. And let me quote this example that reveals the gap yawning between Mitsuki and her husband Tetsuo. He wants to buy a condominium “in the center of Tokyo” (the Japanese text gives Minato-ku, which—if you know Tokyo—says it all):
Juliet Winters Carpenter’s translation is superb: I particularly liked “literati shirt” for bunkajin shatsu (a starched shirt with a mandarin collar worn by a particular kind of cultural commentator exquisitely skewered here). Not sure about “Are you fucking kidding me?” for naani, sore. I don’t think I would have been game—but it works.
Throughout, we see the action through the eyes of the younger daughter Mitsuki, as she recalls her privileged childhood, period of study in Paris, marriage to a university academic, and its unravelling. These are combined with minute attention to contemporary detail—what you get when you sell the family land in central Tokyo, how much is left after you’ve paid for aged care, the price of a funeral, how a couple might split their assets if they divorce, the cost of apartments, both new and already-lived-in, how much money a woman might need to live on when she’s retired. And let me quote this example that reveals the gap yawning between Mitsuki and her husband Tetsuo. He wants to buy a condominium “in the center of Tokyo” (the Japanese text gives Minato-ku, which—if you know Tokyo—says it all):
there would be an expansive entry hall tastefully decorated with marble. Residents might include a pair of architects, man and wife, he with a goatee and she with a short bob and light, glowing makeup, raising herbs on their terrace and living stylish lives—people like that.Mizumura’s beady eye can’t help but despair at contemporary Japan. At “their mother’s last live opera, La bohème”:
The tenor’s golden voice made them forget this wasn’t La Scala or the Paris Opéra but Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, whose outdated modernist architecture oozed the sadness of a country condemned in its early modern era to a policy of “leave Asia, enter Europe.”Mizumura is aware of herself as writing in a tradition of Japanese novels; and Noriko and her daughters’ lives too are understood, at least in part, as responses to the novels they’ve read, from Madame Bovary through Ozaki Kōyō’s Konjiki yasha to Tanizaki Jun’ichirō’s The Makioka Sisters. Mitsuki concludes:
People didn’t live to do what they wanted; becoming an adult was a process of learning to give up things you wanted to do. But some abandoned dreams left a persistent ache.What she decides to do isn’t nearly as bleak as that sounds.
Juliet Winters Carpenter’s translation is superb: I particularly liked “literati shirt” for bunkajin shatsu (a starched shirt with a mandarin collar worn by a particular kind of cultural commentator exquisitely skewered here). Not sure about “Are you fucking kidding me?” for naani, sore. I don’t think I would have been game—but it works.
January 16, 2021
Set in contemporary Japan, Mitsuki, a French-language translator, and less beloved than her sister, finds herself in the role of primary caretaker for their long-ailing mother who refuses to die. At the heart of the novel is the Japanese obligatory care-taking of parents which culminates in guilt and resentments, and is here intensified by a mother who was complicated, the illegitimate daughter of a geisha, and selfish, always chasing her own dreams, consigning her husband to a nursing home to die alone, too busy with an affair to do right by him. As Mitsuki cares for her mother, her own marriage is failing: in a poignant scene, we learn that when Mitsuki was newly married, she sang to her new husband and he walked away. Wound through the novel is the mother's history, and a delving into Japanese literature, and though the novel is a bit overlong and baggy, it's a very interesting birds-eye view into a different culture.
August 14, 2017
The paradox at the heart of this novel, in which a middle-aged woman is caught between her love for her mother and her feelings of being stifled by the burden of her care, was a compelling one to me. Overall it was a rich portrait of aging, familial ties, regret and acceptance -- even if its rhythm, particularly in the second half, was slow at times.
July 2, 2017
Superb "They hoped that the angelic garment and simple flowers might have a purifying effect on their mother, who seemed almost to have been burdened her whole life by frustrated passions from past lives. When she set off on her journey to the next world, they hoped that she might go to a place as pure and peaceful as possible, be it nirvana, heaven, or paradise. Or, if she were to be reincarnated into human form, they hoped to lessen her burden in the life to come and so reduce her suffering and the suffering of those around her."
November 19, 2023
Ironically, I don’t think this novel is even about the mother-daughter relationship. I think it’s about ageing and what it does to idealism, its physical constraints, the dashing of hopes and continuation of dysfunctional cycles, etc. It moreso asks questions like what is a good life? What should we aspire to reasonably in our lives?
October 19, 2017
Admit it. In spite of the popular saying, we DO judge books by their covers (and people too). This is where you are going to miss out on one of the best books ever. Because this cover, although pretty, seems very old-fashioned, almost dowdy. And the writing inside definitely is NOT. It is funny, it is insightful, it is thoughtful. It is very very modern.
"Inheritance from mother" is not only a wonderful commentary on our aging parents and their caregivers (a universal and growing concern due to greater longevity), but our relationships with our parents and siblings. If you have a parent, you should read this (lol). If you have siblings, you will relate to how caring for older parents rarely falls equitably across all siblings' shoulders.
What I found absolutely delightful, especially as it came as a surprise, was how funny it was! There were so many wonderful phrases and sentences which remind me of the best of Chekhov's observations of the human condition and its idiosyncracies. I am absolutely thrilled to have discovered this author, and translator. So many books are poorly translated, which irritate me like a pebble in my shoe; a thing that cannot be ignored. I find it hard to keep going; not so with this charming book.
There are tons of memoirs and novels about tough parent/child relations (almost all told from the child's perspective). What gave this novel greater wisdom was its sympathy in going back to both the mother and grandmother's generation, and imagining the hardships and circumstances which shaped both women's characters. So much of these (other) books are one-sided, 'woe is me', all the injustices put upon 'the child'. This one had great pathos and sympathy for each generation of mothers and why they might have behaved, or parented, as they did.
I enjoyed every minute of the "Inheritance" and savored its brilliance and simplicity. I felt like I was reading a modern version of "The Makioka Sisters", or watching a superb Ozu film, with its dignity and observations on familial relations.
Check this book out - and enjoy.
"Inheritance from mother" is not only a wonderful commentary on our aging parents and their caregivers (a universal and growing concern due to greater longevity), but our relationships with our parents and siblings. If you have a parent, you should read this (lol). If you have siblings, you will relate to how caring for older parents rarely falls equitably across all siblings' shoulders.
What I found absolutely delightful, especially as it came as a surprise, was how funny it was! There were so many wonderful phrases and sentences which remind me of the best of Chekhov's observations of the human condition and its idiosyncracies. I am absolutely thrilled to have discovered this author, and translator. So many books are poorly translated, which irritate me like a pebble in my shoe; a thing that cannot be ignored. I find it hard to keep going; not so with this charming book.
There are tons of memoirs and novels about tough parent/child relations (almost all told from the child's perspective). What gave this novel greater wisdom was its sympathy in going back to both the mother and grandmother's generation, and imagining the hardships and circumstances which shaped both women's characters. So much of these (other) books are one-sided, 'woe is me', all the injustices put upon 'the child'. This one had great pathos and sympathy for each generation of mothers and why they might have behaved, or parented, as they did.
I enjoyed every minute of the "Inheritance" and savored its brilliance and simplicity. I felt like I was reading a modern version of "The Makioka Sisters", or watching a superb Ozu film, with its dignity and observations on familial relations.
Check this book out - and enjoy.
December 22, 2017
4.4 stars
I applaud Mizumura for daring to write about such a taboo subject in Japanese culture: wishing your mother would die. The phrase "today mother died" itself is repeated like a literary riff refrain throughout the book, apparently mirroring the opening of The Stranger by Camus. The author also shows us the conflicts that a supposedly dutiful sacrificial nurturing woman in the roles of daughter, sister, mother and wife in Japanese society faces. Along the way, she makes salient points including the unacknowledged contribution of primarily female caregivers in an aging society. There are also depressing nostalgic commentary from the protagonist Mitsuki such as how females past a certain age become invisible to society, shunted to become observers rather than being observed.
The novel had an interesting mix of Japanese and Western foci. Many of the characters spent some time in France and are connected by their love of the French language and culture. References of literary works abound including Madame Bovary and the Golden Demon. The dreams, romance and tribulations of three generations of women are explored. Class differences, etiquette and traditions in Japanese society have a large impact upon their lives.
Mitsuki faces so much pressure in her life, both visible and invisible. She gives and gives, as is expected of her, and inevitably resentment builds up. Some of the unexpressed build-up of negative emotion manifests as physical symptoms which further makes the situation worse. I couldn't help feeling sympathy for this character, trapped so much by tradition and circumstance. It wasn't hard to feel the despair and fatigue she faced and one couldn't help wishing that she would get some respite and rest. The inheritance from her mother's estate does feature in that respect but the novel's strength lies in the skillful way that the author immerses us into these flesh and blood characters' lives and their realistic struggles.
I applaud Mizumura for daring to write about such a taboo subject in Japanese culture: wishing your mother would die. The phrase "today mother died" itself is repeated like a literary riff refrain throughout the book, apparently mirroring the opening of The Stranger by Camus. The author also shows us the conflicts that a supposedly dutiful sacrificial nurturing woman in the roles of daughter, sister, mother and wife in Japanese society faces. Along the way, she makes salient points including the unacknowledged contribution of primarily female caregivers in an aging society. There are also depressing nostalgic commentary from the protagonist Mitsuki such as how females past a certain age become invisible to society, shunted to become observers rather than being observed.
The novel had an interesting mix of Japanese and Western foci. Many of the characters spent some time in France and are connected by their love of the French language and culture. References of literary works abound including Madame Bovary and the Golden Demon. The dreams, romance and tribulations of three generations of women are explored. Class differences, etiquette and traditions in Japanese society have a large impact upon their lives.
Mitsuki faces so much pressure in her life, both visible and invisible. She gives and gives, as is expected of her, and inevitably resentment builds up. Some of the unexpressed build-up of negative emotion manifests as physical symptoms which further makes the situation worse. I couldn't help feeling sympathy for this character, trapped so much by tradition and circumstance. It wasn't hard to feel the despair and fatigue she faced and one couldn't help wishing that she would get some respite and rest. The inheritance from her mother's estate does feature in that respect but the novel's strength lies in the skillful way that the author immerses us into these flesh and blood characters' lives and their realistic struggles.
June 10, 2017
Inheritance from Mother
Minae Mizumura
Mitsuki is mid-fifties and the primary care-giver for her mother. Mitsuki's thirty year marriage started to crumble long ago. Older sister Natsuki, married to a wealthy, thoughtful man, is a trusted confidant, but does not share any of the daily concerns of Mitsuki.
There is very little plot or dialog. Most of the narrative is the introspection of Mitsuki, and her feelings toward and about her mother, sister, and husband. This presents a very appealing character study of all four.
In the first half of the novel, Mitsuki is primarily concerned with her mother's declining health, and then death. Naturally this takes it's tole on Mitsuki's emotional and physical well-being. The second half deals with the separation, and eventual divorce, of Mitsuki's marriage. This causes even more stress on Mitsuki.
Although this is set in Japan, and some of the stress of daily life is uniquely Japanese, the overall narrative could easily apply anywhere. The feelings, concerns, stresses, and behavior seem uniquely human, not geographic. One can easily identify with Mitsuki.
Minae Mizumura
Mitsuki is mid-fifties and the primary care-giver for her mother. Mitsuki's thirty year marriage started to crumble long ago. Older sister Natsuki, married to a wealthy, thoughtful man, is a trusted confidant, but does not share any of the daily concerns of Mitsuki.
There is very little plot or dialog. Most of the narrative is the introspection of Mitsuki, and her feelings toward and about her mother, sister, and husband. This presents a very appealing character study of all four.
In the first half of the novel, Mitsuki is primarily concerned with her mother's declining health, and then death. Naturally this takes it's tole on Mitsuki's emotional and physical well-being. The second half deals with the separation, and eventual divorce, of Mitsuki's marriage. This causes even more stress on Mitsuki.
Although this is set in Japan, and some of the stress of daily life is uniquely Japanese, the overall narrative could easily apply anywhere. The feelings, concerns, stresses, and behavior seem uniquely human, not geographic. One can easily identify with Mitsuki.
August 31, 2022
The major plot points are revealed in the first forty pages, meaning when they happened later I felt like I was rereading them but with more detail. Most of the story (especially the first 200 pages) happen in such a disjointed manner that I was never able to develop any attachment to a character. Without any sense of a dramatic present, the story was not gripping. The characters are incredibly flat, but written as if they are the most philosophically complex beings caught in a battle of age, gender, and cultural influences. These complexities are real and deserve to be written about, but this book does not do a good job of earning it.
Possibly due to the translation, the narration is incredibly dull and boring. What the book does well, it commends itself for; for example, saying “no other novel would write about this character. No one would care about her,” basically the book acknowledging its own merit. Good god, this one was incredibly hard to get through. And—I won’t spoil it—the ending might be the most cliché thing I’ve ever read. I physically cringed. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
Possibly due to the translation, the narration is incredibly dull and boring. What the book does well, it commends itself for; for example, saying “no other novel would write about this character. No one would care about her,” basically the book acknowledging its own merit. Good god, this one was incredibly hard to get through. And—I won’t spoil it—the ending might be the most cliché thing I’ve ever read. I physically cringed. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
July 31, 2017
I feel a bit funny giving this book only 2 stars while others seem to have loved it, but I found it quite uneventful. It is a story of two sisters who are dealing with their ailing mother. It's not a spoiler because one of the first sentences in the book is that the mother has died. The book talks about how the mother was raised by her mother, and how she raises her girls. Then goes on to talk about their relationships with the men the marry, but mostly their relationship with their mother. I waited for something to happen but found the book predictable and just plain flat. Maybe it's me, I seem to be finding a lot of books that end up flat this summer.
January 28, 2018
The close, unemotional examination of a 55 year old Japanese woman's life and the lives of her parents and grandparents. It tries to show how one gets to be the way they are. It also shows how Japanese culture has changed over the last 100 yrs and how different it is from ours.
March 16, 2018
4+ stars, though not quite a 5.
So much in this dense story, about mothers and daughters, about sisters, marriage, creating a new life and new reality with aging.
So much in this dense story, about mothers and daughters, about sisters, marriage, creating a new life and new reality with aging.
August 29, 2018
Another excellent novel by Mizumura in a fine translation by Juliet Winters Carpenter.
June 4, 2025
the guy who sells books on broadway gave this to me for free and said it was apparently very good and had won some award, but it doesn’t have that many reviews on here and not many people seem to know about it. i picked it up as the first of my series of japanese lit before my trip
this book is so, so honest, and that is what makes it breathtakingly poignant! it is a bit slow in the beginning and the middle, but the ending is wonderfully written and makes the languidness of the first two thirds feel necessary. and the decisions of mitsuki and her sister at the ending — devastating! — but i’m not going to spoil it because i think this is really worth reading. it is honest about the depression and burden of old age, about the mundane nature of life-destroying difficulties, about how complicated family is, what marriage actually entails, the relationships between women, the role of men in our lives. the melancholy outweighs the hope, but the hope still goes on existing. i’m going to make my mom read this
this book is so, so honest, and that is what makes it breathtakingly poignant! it is a bit slow in the beginning and the middle, but the ending is wonderfully written and makes the languidness of the first two thirds feel necessary. and the decisions of mitsuki and her sister at the ending — devastating! — but i’m not going to spoil it because i think this is really worth reading. it is honest about the depression and burden of old age, about the mundane nature of life-destroying difficulties, about how complicated family is, what marriage actually entails, the relationships between women, the role of men in our lives. the melancholy outweighs the hope, but the hope still goes on existing. i’m going to make my mom read this
March 27, 2023
t_t hermoso
November 9, 2017
Me hizo pico.
May 25, 2017
Please read all of my reviews at http://ultraviolentlit.blogspot.ca!
Set in Japan, Inheritance from Mother is the story of two sisters and their aging mother Noriko, as she declines in health and ends up in the hospital. Noriko is in her eighties, and she is vain, self-absorbed and manipulative. Although her cognitive function is declining, she is still able to control her daughters and have them satisfy her every whim.
Older sister Mitsuki is in her mid-fifties, with a successful career teaching French at a private Tokyo university. Although she is doing well at work, her marriage is failing – she has just discovered that her husband is having an affair with a much younger woman. Mitsuki sacrifices her own chance at happiness to fulfill all of her mother’s wishes, and yet she secretly dreams of the day that her mother will finally pass away. She carries the full weight of responsibility for Noriko, as her beautiful sister Natsuki has never been expected to help out.
The novel opens after Noriko’s death, as the sisters discuss their financial inheritance from their mother. Then the story moves backwards to when Noriko first ends up in the hospital, and the many calculations that must be made to put her in a suitable nursing home. Although money is a constant concern, there is another inheritance that Mitsuki receives – the learned behaviour of her mother and the constricting bonds of womanhood. Especially in Japan, where the feminine mystique is the image of honoured mother and dutiful daughter, Mitsuki struggles to put herself and her happiness first. This theme transcends Japanese culture, as the role of women globally is that of caretaker to everyone else.
The characters are somewhat cold and disconnected, but it’s hard not to feel empathy for them – even vain Noriko, who is struggling to accept the fact that she is aging and unable to continue with her life as she knew it. She hopes for a dignified death, even in the sterile and dehumanizing hospital setting. Meanwhile, Mitsuki is clear and honest with herself about her choices, despite her chronic fatigue and possible depression. When she does finally receive her inheritance, it isn’t about the money – it’s about gaining some breathing room from her life, and making time for herself.
This novel was originally serialized and published in short chapters, which likely accounts for its repetition and length. Although it is probably too long for a deathbed family drama, it also contains countless themes about motherhood and, more importantly, womanhood, that are explored thoroughly and intriguingly. Told in spare prose, the novel is touching but never melodramatic, as Mitsuki grows into her own woman beyond the shadow of her mother.
I received this book from Other Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Set in Japan, Inheritance from Mother is the story of two sisters and their aging mother Noriko, as she declines in health and ends up in the hospital. Noriko is in her eighties, and she is vain, self-absorbed and manipulative. Although her cognitive function is declining, she is still able to control her daughters and have them satisfy her every whim.
Older sister Mitsuki is in her mid-fifties, with a successful career teaching French at a private Tokyo university. Although she is doing well at work, her marriage is failing – she has just discovered that her husband is having an affair with a much younger woman. Mitsuki sacrifices her own chance at happiness to fulfill all of her mother’s wishes, and yet she secretly dreams of the day that her mother will finally pass away. She carries the full weight of responsibility for Noriko, as her beautiful sister Natsuki has never been expected to help out.
The novel opens after Noriko’s death, as the sisters discuss their financial inheritance from their mother. Then the story moves backwards to when Noriko first ends up in the hospital, and the many calculations that must be made to put her in a suitable nursing home. Although money is a constant concern, there is another inheritance that Mitsuki receives – the learned behaviour of her mother and the constricting bonds of womanhood. Especially in Japan, where the feminine mystique is the image of honoured mother and dutiful daughter, Mitsuki struggles to put herself and her happiness first. This theme transcends Japanese culture, as the role of women globally is that of caretaker to everyone else.
The characters are somewhat cold and disconnected, but it’s hard not to feel empathy for them – even vain Noriko, who is struggling to accept the fact that she is aging and unable to continue with her life as she knew it. She hopes for a dignified death, even in the sterile and dehumanizing hospital setting. Meanwhile, Mitsuki is clear and honest with herself about her choices, despite her chronic fatigue and possible depression. When she does finally receive her inheritance, it isn’t about the money – it’s about gaining some breathing room from her life, and making time for herself.
This novel was originally serialized and published in short chapters, which likely accounts for its repetition and length. Although it is probably too long for a deathbed family drama, it also contains countless themes about motherhood and, more importantly, womanhood, that are explored thoroughly and intriguingly. Told in spare prose, the novel is touching but never melodramatic, as Mitsuki grows into her own woman beyond the shadow of her mother.
I received this book from Other Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
March 30, 2021
Inheritance from Mother by Minae Mizumura.
This is my third book by Mizumura, having previously read a True Novel and her nonfiction work The Fall of Language in the Age of English back in 2017. At the heart of Inheritance from Mother is the story of Mitsuki Katsura, a Japanese woman in her mid-fifties, dealing with the weight of caring for her dying mother, her unfaithful husband, and the reality of no longer being young. Situations that are quite common. Situations that, in Mitsuki’s opinion, wouldn’t even warrant making her the heroine of a novel: “If something should happen to Mitsuki now, there would be neither poetry nor romance in her demise.” But through this situation, Mizumara is able to explore and analyze several themes including mother-daughter relationships, inequality and unfair burdens placed on women, aging and dying, Japanese vs. Western culture, Japan’s history and customs, and literature’s impact on people’s lives.
This last theme is something I love about Mizumura’s works in general—her homage to other literary traditions and works in her books. Her most popular book in English, A True Novel, is a Japanese retelling/ re-imagining of Wuthering Heights and also contains a preface exploring the debate in Japanese literature between the ‘true novel’ and the ‘I-novel’ (a novel that is pure fiction vs. a novel that is semi-autobiographical or where the distinction between the author and persona/ protagonist is vague). Inheritance from Mother, which was serialized over two years in the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, is a homage to “the dying tradition of serial novels” and also considers the impact serialized novels had on both Japanese culture and on individuals (with the protagonist herself being ‘the offspring of a serial novel’).
While A True Novel still remains my favorite, Inheritance from Mother is another excellent showcase of Mizumura’s talent for both embracing her literary predecessors in Japanese and Western literature and challenging these various forms to create remarkable works.
This is my third book by Mizumura, having previously read a True Novel and her nonfiction work The Fall of Language in the Age of English back in 2017. At the heart of Inheritance from Mother is the story of Mitsuki Katsura, a Japanese woman in her mid-fifties, dealing with the weight of caring for her dying mother, her unfaithful husband, and the reality of no longer being young. Situations that are quite common. Situations that, in Mitsuki’s opinion, wouldn’t even warrant making her the heroine of a novel: “If something should happen to Mitsuki now, there would be neither poetry nor romance in her demise.” But through this situation, Mizumara is able to explore and analyze several themes including mother-daughter relationships, inequality and unfair burdens placed on women, aging and dying, Japanese vs. Western culture, Japan’s history and customs, and literature’s impact on people’s lives.
This last theme is something I love about Mizumura’s works in general—her homage to other literary traditions and works in her books. Her most popular book in English, A True Novel, is a Japanese retelling/ re-imagining of Wuthering Heights and also contains a preface exploring the debate in Japanese literature between the ‘true novel’ and the ‘I-novel’ (a novel that is pure fiction vs. a novel that is semi-autobiographical or where the distinction between the author and persona/ protagonist is vague). Inheritance from Mother, which was serialized over two years in the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, is a homage to “the dying tradition of serial novels” and also considers the impact serialized novels had on both Japanese culture and on individuals (with the protagonist herself being ‘the offspring of a serial novel’).
While A True Novel still remains my favorite, Inheritance from Mother is another excellent showcase of Mizumura’s talent for both embracing her literary predecessors in Japanese and Western literature and challenging these various forms to create remarkable works.
May 22, 2017
The Katsura sisters have long had an embattled relationship with their mother. Noriko Katsura, is an egotistical and selfish woman with a taste for the finer things in life, and little, if any, feelings for people. The sisters dream of the day when their mother will finally die, and her demands on them will stop.
This sounds horrible, especially in a society where children are expected to love, revere, and care selflessly for their parents. But for Mitsuki, the daughter on whom the majority of the burden falls on, it’s a chance to finally live her own life. As a child, she was neglected in favor of Natsuki, her more beautiful and talented sister. As an adult, her life is pretty much run by her husband, a fellow college instructor who wants a luxury condo- and is having (another) affair with a younger woman. What would Mitsuki do if she could make decisions without having to consider either of these people?
The first half of the book revolves around Noriko’s final hospitalization and death, and fills us in on the history of the Katsura family. The second half is what Mitsuki does after her mother’s death as she figures out what she really wants out of life. It’s fascinating reading the history of her family and how it was shaped by Japanese culture, as that culture itself changes through modernization and influences from the West. While told in third person, Mitsuki is the main focus of the tale. Mother/daughter relationships, marriage, aging, and sister relationships are all treated here with sensitivity and depth.
This sounds horrible, especially in a society where children are expected to love, revere, and care selflessly for their parents. But for Mitsuki, the daughter on whom the majority of the burden falls on, it’s a chance to finally live her own life. As a child, she was neglected in favor of Natsuki, her more beautiful and talented sister. As an adult, her life is pretty much run by her husband, a fellow college instructor who wants a luxury condo- and is having (another) affair with a younger woman. What would Mitsuki do if she could make decisions without having to consider either of these people?
The first half of the book revolves around Noriko’s final hospitalization and death, and fills us in on the history of the Katsura family. The second half is what Mitsuki does after her mother’s death as she figures out what she really wants out of life. It’s fascinating reading the history of her family and how it was shaped by Japanese culture, as that culture itself changes through modernization and influences from the West. While told in third person, Mitsuki is the main focus of the tale. Mother/daughter relationships, marriage, aging, and sister relationships are all treated here with sensitivity and depth.
March 16, 2021
Mitsuki is middle aged, comfortable, educated, a good wife, daughter, and sister. She does what she is supposed to do. She follows tradition and also enjoys many of the modern ways that life unfolds. Having spent time in France, she knows a bit about the east and the west, and blends them, mostly to her satisfaction. She is a fairly modern Japanese woman.
When her aging mother begins a descent toward death, though, Mitsuki adopts the outer face and inner thoughts so common to those who are in-between. She brings visits her mother regularly, listens to her, holds her hand, brings her flowers and food. She thinks about her mother's shortcomings and her own entrapment.
Meanwhile, her husband of many years, so supportive and solicitous of her mother and the situation, finds either solace or entrapment of his own in a paramour...Mitsuki is not entirely sure which. She ponders her life through all of the lenses afforded to those of middle age, and alternately weeps and wonders at her own existence.
This is the story of many women, I think, if they were to write a brutally honest diary of their conflicting thoughts and feelings, of their complacent existences and boiling angers. This is the story of her mother, her grandmother, her far-flung relatives and Mitsuki herself. It's also the story of Japan's embrace of the west and its longing for itself.
A thoughtful book, one of richness beyond explanation. Mizumura is a wonderful writer who has lived in the minds of all of us of a certain age.
When her aging mother begins a descent toward death, though, Mitsuki adopts the outer face and inner thoughts so common to those who are in-between. She brings visits her mother regularly, listens to her, holds her hand, brings her flowers and food. She thinks about her mother's shortcomings and her own entrapment.
Meanwhile, her husband of many years, so supportive and solicitous of her mother and the situation, finds either solace or entrapment of his own in a paramour...Mitsuki is not entirely sure which. She ponders her life through all of the lenses afforded to those of middle age, and alternately weeps and wonders at her own existence.
This is the story of many women, I think, if they were to write a brutally honest diary of their conflicting thoughts and feelings, of their complacent existences and boiling angers. This is the story of her mother, her grandmother, her far-flung relatives and Mitsuki herself. It's also the story of Japan's embrace of the west and its longing for itself.
A thoughtful book, one of richness beyond explanation. Mizumura is a wonderful writer who has lived in the minds of all of us of a certain age.
November 19, 2017
A tale of a Japanese family across generations, written in installments and published in the papers.
Mitsuki is the younger daughter, now caring for her aging and ailing mother, the least favorite of the two daughters of Noriko. Mitsuki's older sister was the favored one - the prettier one, the more talented one, the one that married well into money, but Mitsuki is the one caring for Noriko.
Noriko's mother believed her life mirrored a Japanese story written in installments and published in the newspapers. From leaving a first marriage to running into a second marriage....and Noriko follows suit with leaving her first husband for a second man and later having an affair with a third.
There's the story of the illegitimacy on both sides of Mitsuki's family, the airs and attempts at grandeur that Noriko lives for, Mitsuki's crumbling marriage, the rivalry between the two sisters and how Mitsuki finds happiness and peace.
Mitsuki is the younger daughter, now caring for her aging and ailing mother, the least favorite of the two daughters of Noriko. Mitsuki's older sister was the favored one - the prettier one, the more talented one, the one that married well into money, but Mitsuki is the one caring for Noriko.
Noriko's mother believed her life mirrored a Japanese story written in installments and published in the newspapers. From leaving a first marriage to running into a second marriage....and Noriko follows suit with leaving her first husband for a second man and later having an affair with a third.
There's the story of the illegitimacy on both sides of Mitsuki's family, the airs and attempts at grandeur that Noriko lives for, Mitsuki's crumbling marriage, the rivalry between the two sisters and how Mitsuki finds happiness and peace.
November 3, 2018
Thought-provoking novel about aging, family, and family dysfunction, translated from the Japanese. It has an unusually apt title with a double meaning--straightforwardly, the narrator does in fact receive a monetary inheritance upon her mother's death, but symbolically, the "inheritance" symbolizes emotional baggage. This book is about how a toxic family can F you up good.
The narrator's mother is a real piece of work. The book consists of the narrator examining and unpacking all the ways in which her mother's life, treatment of her, and actions have negatively influenced her life patterns, even leading to a loveless marriage and divorce.
This book, although I enjoyed it overall, suffers from the inevitable fate of an author trying to convey the ennui, frustration and endlessness of waiting for a difficult mother to die over a long period of time in a nursing home. When done well, it makes this section of the book likewise full of ennui and endlessness!
The narrator's mother is a real piece of work. The book consists of the narrator examining and unpacking all the ways in which her mother's life, treatment of her, and actions have negatively influenced her life patterns, even leading to a loveless marriage and divorce.
This book, although I enjoyed it overall, suffers from the inevitable fate of an author trying to convey the ennui, frustration and endlessness of waiting for a difficult mother to die over a long period of time in a nursing home. When done well, it makes this section of the book likewise full of ennui and endlessness!
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