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Reading The Factory really took me back to my undergrad days, studying sociology and arguing about Marxism in workshops. I went to bed that night dreaming of baguettes and the bourgeoisie. I‘d recommend it to any fellow pinkos, and fans of Sayaka Murata or Yoko Ogawa. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-factory-hiroko-oyamada/

I enjoyed this slim work of fiction almost as much as her other book, The Hole. So weird, quite funny, and overall just a very entertaining read.

A very strange little novella about three new employees at a factory whose relationship with reality and time becomes increasingly off kilter in small ways throughout the days, weeks, or years they work there. I enjoyed it but it didn't blow me away. I am enjoying exploring more avant-garde Japanese literature though! There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job and Convenience Store Woman really got me hooked.

Some evening reading with my best girl 🥰

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I was so mad at the end.. I wanted to know what was happening in that factory! What about all the animals?!?!
The story is non linear and it was difficult for me to understand which character and "when" in time I was reading..
The only positive side, it's a quick reading ?

(This was my #DoubleSpin for October and I'm glad I finished it in time.. I want a fresh start for November!) @TheAromaofBooks

This short novella follows 3 people who work at a place referred to as “the factory.” At times the book adumbrates the question of meaning in life, but only faintly. Then there is a thread discussing the animals at the factory that I would argue attempts to create a parallel to the humans. Great read, fun in ways as it zigzags time and narrators. Overall it feels unfinished.

What a strange little book. I have a hard time recommending it because I'm certain I don't understand some of it. 3 different individuals find themselves employed at different jobs within the same enormous place called the factory. Time has little meaning within the book, nobody does much work, and the factory may or may not produce anything.

The ‘factory‘ is a company - as big as a city & with all the amenities - or, wait, is the factory society itself? Is there a difference? 3 workers struggle to figure out the point of their seemingly (& actually) pointless jobs. A deadpan & increasingly surreal depiction of the baffling experience of contemporary corporate employment. And what is up with all these strange birds?

Weirdly, the book this reminds me most strongly of is Generation X.

Words are such unstable things.

I was told this book has a distinct Kafka-vibe but I haven‘t read Kafka‘s works so I wouldn‘t know. What I can say is, it‘s disorienting as the narratives leap back and forth in time. Oyamada takes a jibe at the conglomerate working culture through the eyes of 3 employees who are given very specific, meaningless, and mundane tasks. They feel confused, numb, and isolated...lines between reality ⬇️

#Booked2020 #ThinkPink
#ReadYourWay

#ReadYourWay My next read, also by a Japanese author,
follows the stories of 3 new employees at a company simply known as ‘The Factory‘. Each is assigned a specific task - one shreds paper, one proofreads documents, another studies moss growing on The Factory grounds. These work-weary employees‘ lives are soon governed by their work, and The Factory becomes inescapable..

"I tried to let it go, but then she started dipping her pork in the ponzu. She took a bite, added more sauce and took another bite, even though it already had an umeboshi inside. “I think I like it better with bulldog sauce.” What was my brother thinking getting involved with this hideous freak?"

"Now she‘s calling me Yoshiko-chan? I felt like an iguana was crawling around my insides."
Today in odd similes.

"Goodbye to All Your Problems and Mine: A Guide to Mental Health Care. It was a thin B4-size booklet. Beneath its excremental title was a drawing of two smiling meatballs, basking under a rainbow."

"As I opened the basement-level door, I thought I could smell birds."
Today in notable first sentences.

No matter how long employees work at the Factory, a mega-corporation in Japan, its business objectives remain as much of a mystery to them as their seemingly pointless jobs. And then there are strange animals living at the Factory that appear to depend on its human-made ecology. But the line between human and animal blurs in this delightfully bizarre, stream-of-consciousness fable of the many absurdities of corporate culture. 🖤🖤🖤

So I‘ve been reading some books in translation recently and they‘ve reminded me about something I don‘t understand. When we mention a language, it‘s just the name, i.e. Japanese. But when we refer to translation, it‘s from “the” Japanese. Why the “the?” Does anyone know?

A fun story about the absurdity of the modern workplace. Kafka would be proud.

Well, I hate the word Kafkaesque except in this case it really is appropriate - this slim translated novel is about three people recently hired to work at a sprawling, city-dwarfing factory, the kind that has bus routes and restaurants to support the workers (or is it to keep them there?) ⤵️