Order ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF VICISSITUDE here
(also reviewed)
Order TOBACCO-STAINED MOUNTAIN GOAT here
''Y was killed the following month.''
''Ah.''
''He was sent on a one-way mission to fly a tokko-kamikaze-attack.''
''Self-immolation was this ingenious new weapon he boasted of?''.
''Most likely. The Japanese love to sacrifice themselves for stupid things.''
Genre fiction is satisfying because it's predictable. It's meant to fulfill your expectations. Genre fiction can also be frustrating though, because it's predictable. It's filled with clichés and pre-fabricated paradigms that lesser authors will use and abuse. The best novels often draw over the bold lines of genre and explore uncharted territory. Australian author (living in Tokyo) Andrez Bergen loves that ''drawing over the lines'' thing. His entire writing career seems dedicated to this idea and it works for him, more often than not. His first novel TOBACCO-STAINED MOUNTAIN GOAT had a quirky charm to it and the ''sequel'' ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF VICISSITUDE, while radically different, improves on everything there is to like about the peculiar fiction of Andrez Bergen. It's still a strange cat you need to read with an open mind, though.
If you've read TOBACCO-STAINED MOUNTAIN GOAT, you might recognize protagonist Wolram Deaps from Andrez Bergen's debut novel. Deaps is now dead and wandering in a strange netherworld alongside a geisha named Kohana. Together, they revisit several memories (most of them being Kohana's) and witness the evolution of Japan in the 20th century, along the troubled story of the geisha's life. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF VICISSITUDE is pretty much a series of dialogues between Wolram Deaps and Kohana, that could easily be turned into a stage play, one day. The two characters have a terrific chemistry together and complete one another tremendously well. They keep going back and forth throughout the most ceremonious moments, and give a new life to a century that's been put behind us.
You should know that Andrez Bergen has a strange delivery. It's a staccato more than it is a flowing river and it requires a little patience. His ideas are colliding together and it's sometimes difficult to follow. After twenty-something pages of ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF VICISSITUDE, I actually put the book down and started to read online reviews in order to verify if the information I was registering about that book was accurate. Things are smoothing out once Deaps and Kohana are settling into their time-traveling routine though, as ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF VICISSITUDE becomes basically a series of dialogues. Andrez Bergen is really good at that dialogue thing. He does it with an off-beat comedic timing that became his trademark. Bergen knew the dialogues were the calling card of this novel and therefore crafted light and graceful, yet powerful discussions, between the two entities, that are just a blast to read.
Kohana stood there with no clothes and no shame. I stared at her face, refusing to look an inch beneath the chin. The girl has no such qualms. She ran her eyes over me, and then guffawed. ''Oh dear. Why on earth are you wering such silly short-pants-those are Jolly Roger flags! How old are you again?''
Yes, the dialogues between Wolram Deaps and Kohana are a lot of fun, but they resonated with me long after I was done reading ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF VICISSITUDE. The protagonists are, basically, examining a completed life. Once people die, the perception others have of their lives change. The smallest things are imbued with meaning that might be utter bullshit. The peculiar position Deaps and Kohana are in give them the unique opportunity to keep being human after their death and see the sacred moments of their (well, mostly Kohana's) completed lives with an original outlook. One of my numerous theories is that everything sacred is human and ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF VICISSITUDE is a great example of the sturdiness of the human spirit. Who said ghosts should be tormented and melancholic creatures? The departed don't have the right to celebrate their time on Earth?
I'm not going to comment on the inclusion of facts and Japanese culture in ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF VICISSITUDE because it's been done in just about every other review of this novel (you can watch Caleb J. Ross' excellent video review for a quick-yet-efficient rundown of these aspects). Yes, it's an important part of this novel and I thought it was a quirky idea to mix historical facts in such an abstract novel. It's not what I thought was beautiful about the novel. What I liked was the laughs, the wits, the chemistry and every part of humanity Wolram Deaps and Kohana clinged to in their death. They remained beautiful human beings long after shuffling off their mortal coil. What makes people beautiful is the capacity to transcend their condition through humour and perspective and I thought ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF VICISSITUDE was all about that. It's a book for adventurous (dare I say advanced?) readers, but it has it's own blooming, original beauty and I cannot ask for more out of a novel.
I'm not going to comment on the inclusion of facts and Japanese culture in ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF VICISSITUDE because it's been done in just about every other review of this novel (you can watch Caleb J. Ross' excellent video review for a quick-yet-efficient rundown of these aspects). Yes, it's an important part of this novel and I thought it was a quirky idea to mix historical facts in such an abstract novel. It's not what I thought was beautiful about the novel. What I liked was the laughs, the wits, the chemistry and every part of humanity Wolram Deaps and Kohana clinged to in their death. They remained beautiful human beings long after shuffling off their mortal coil. What makes people beautiful is the capacity to transcend their condition through humour and perspective and I thought ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF VICISSITUDE was all about that. It's a book for adventurous (dare I say advanced?) readers, but it has it's own blooming, original beauty and I cannot ask for more out of a novel.