To paraphrase Leo Tolstoy, all happy villages are alike and all unhappy villages are unhappy in their one way. At least, this is the impression I got as I read Masatsugu Ono’s Echo on the Bay (solidly translated by Angus Turvill). When Miki and her family arrive in Oita after her father’s transfer, the family expects a quiet life in the coastal village. After all, why would they send a man who cannot pass the promotion exams to be the top police officer in Oita?
At first, the family is treated to a bit of pomp and circumstance (and a lot of gifted alcohol) by the village’s wheelers and dealers. Their biggest annoyance is that the village drunk constantly visits their house to drink until he’s legless. (This mostly bothers Miki’s younger brother, as the drinking prevents him from watching TV.) Things start to go off the rails a bit as election season heats up. The top candidates are brothers-in-law who are competing to buy up as many votes as possible. The corruption becomes so outrageous that Miki’s father is forced to act. Each side gives up two men from their election campaigns to be arrested—which Miki’s father does after a long day trip to a pachinko parlor with his “prisoners.”
Eventually, the town’s gossips (four men with silicosis who live off of government benefits) grow comfortable with their new chief of police to start revealing the village’s dirty secrets, stretching all the way back to the Japanese occupations of Manchuria and Korea. The men repeat stories about curses that affect certain families—curses that are really just bad decisions and/or family histories of abuse. The sleepy facade of Oita is constantly belied by all of the crimes and shenanigans committed by its inhabitants.
By stripping away its apparent quietness, Ono turns the story of a village on its head. Where other novels (I’m thinking of British pastoral novels here mostly, apart from my beloved Cold Comfort Farm) highlight the charm of the surroundings, Ono’s narrator frequently remarks on the stench and pollution of the fish farm. Where those novels unravel complicated family histories, Ono’s story unravels tangled webs of criminality. Echo on the Bay is a disturbing little book, perfect for readers who like to read about the gritty reality the lies beneath small-town life.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss for review consideration.
this does indeed sound an interesting take on the usual depictions of village life. I’m gradually getting more into Japanese literature but I’ve not heard of this author do will make a note to check him out