"So We Look to the Sky"( ふがいない僕は空を見た), by Misumi Kubo(窪 美澄), translated from Japanese into English by Polly Burton, and published by Arcade, an imprint of @skyhorsepub , is a collection of five short, intricately connected stories. It is Kubo's debut novel, and it was awarded the Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize in 2011.

I read this book back in January for #januaryinjapan , and prior to that, I had it waiting on my Kindle since 2021. Shame on me! This is one of those books that the moment I started reading it, I regretted having waited so long, and felt like I had missed out on it all this time.

Each short story follows a different character, but all characters are connected to each other, and each story brings a new perspective on the previous ones. Interestingly enough though, each story could easily exist on its own, as it was the case with the first story, "Mikumari (ミクマリ)", that had been translated into English and published as a chapbook by @strangerspress since 2017. All together, though, the five stories create a fresh novel that portrays a more unsettling Japan that isn't quirky and magical but very much realistic and rooted in a problematic reality. I think the book is best enjoyed without knowing much of the plot ahead, but I will say some of the themes will most likely shock some readers. A lot is left to interpretation, and the rules of morality are very much blurred, which is something I always appreciate in fiction.

The book was adapted into a movie in 2012 (see second slide), titled "The Cowards who Looked to the Sky," directed by Yuki Tanada. I haven't had the pleasure to watch it yet, but I'm definitely on the lookout for it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing (Arcade) for the e-arc. All opinions are my own. "So We Look to the Sky" has been available in English since August 2021.

Being of half Japanese ancestry it was easy for me to see myself as the narrator of this book. There are so many aspects of culture and tradition that have to be observed and are different in Japan than elsewhere. Women still are seen are second-class people and they have many battles to be won to find an easier place in society. This book gives plenty of food for thought to women anywhere in the world.
Thank you, NetGalley for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An addicting and quick read, I absolutely loved this close look at 5 lives, all connected through one experience of infidelity. Each of the five perspectives has a distinct and honest voice; their stories felt like getting a brief glimpse into someone else's mind. I particularly enjoyed the second story of Anzu, a married woman who prefers cosplay to getting pregnant per her mother-in-law's insistence. A lot of depth and creativity in such a short novel, So We Look to the Sky is a book I'll continue to think about.

Stories about five characters whose narratives bleed into one another's. From angry cosplay sex and being with someone just so you feel "mature" to taking care of your senile grandmother and helping babies come to this world, Kubo's book doesn't tiptoe around the explicit. However, there's nothing porno-like in this book, despite all of the (often) explicit and kinky sex that happens in it. Rather, it is a very touching collection about love and belonging with many of the stories putting the reader in a strange position where he knows he shouldn't feel for the character, yet he can't but do it. Such stories complicate the otherwise black-and-white moral compass of most of the people and show them that sexuality is much more complex than that.

I loved this story! I really enjoy books told from different perspectives and the character development was excellent in this book. Such a unique idea for a story. Five stars!

From an affair involving cosplay, to falling in love with an empty shell of a person, to living with a spouse you no longer love, to helping mothers bring life into the world, and to searching for a lost grandmother who doesn't want to be found, So We Look To The Sky looks deeply into the lives of five interconnected individuals. Sure, there are some explicit sex scenes, but they're not as shocking as the images they produced afterwards.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC. Really enjoyed the read!

I enjoyed this story so much.
It read at a nice medium-fast pace. The vivid details are captivating. This is excellent writing.

So We Look to the Sky begins with explicit cosplay sex (a phrase I never expected to write), dropping readers into the middle of an affair between a high school student named Takumi and a married woman ten years his senior. In a series of five connected stories, each offering a different perspective, the narrative spans out to explore the everyday lives and experiences of people connected to Takumi in both minor and major ways.

With themes of class, morality, and sexuality at its core, So We Look to the Sky is a thoughtful examination of what it means, very simply, to be human: the mistakes we make, the various ways we alternately take care of and hurt each other. It's an incredibly genuine book with deep, emotional characterizations, and each one of the stories broke my heart in one way or another. In these stories, Misumi Kubo explores what it's like to be a sexual being in a society where sex is both largely unacceptable, and also biologically necessary for the continuance of life. It's fierce and feminist.

The writing is smooth and engaging, with Kubo's searing storytelling flawlessly translated by Polly Barton. The only thing I wanted was more resolution for these characters that I had truly come to care about -- but I suppose the best books always leave you wanting more. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys Japanese fiction in translation, contemporary fiction with complex characters, and stories with a feminist bent. Thank you to NetGalley and Arcade for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

*Thank you to Netgalley, Misumi Kubo and the publisher for sending me a free e-ARC copy of So we look to the sky in exchange for an honest review. All quotations are subject to change upon publication.*

So we look to the sky is due to be published on the 3rd of August 2021.

Stats:
Overall: 4/5 stars
Characters: 4/5 stars
Storyline: 3/5 stars
Writing: 5/5 stars
One-line review: The writing in this book is encapsulating, riveting and beautiful, if you enjoy a book for it's prose, then I couldn't recommend So we look to the sky enough

So we look to the sky was so engaging I read it all in a single day, I genuinely wished for more as it was a reasonably short 172 paged book. I loved the multiple POV's, the themes portrayed throughout, and of course the enchanting writing.

My deepest criticism however is the explicitness of some of the scenes, I believe that it wasn't necessary in the quantity in which It was. However I do understand that it was essential to the plot of the book and that some readers enjoy sexual scenes more than I do.

Other than that, I wouldn't change a thing, I loved it.

Another amazing Japanese fiction find this year and translated by the amazing Polly Barton.
This author has an amazing way of connecting up 5 characters and making the reader understand and care for each one of them. The shifting points of view and motivations of each main character was masterfully done.
As mentioned in the blurb there’s a good amount of sex, bullying, mention of suicide and poverty, but well done in my opinion.
I can highly recommend “So We Look to the Sky” to any fan of Asian fiction.
I will certainly check out other works by this author.

I really enjoy the translator, Polly Barton. I've read other books translated from Japanese by her, and this one is no exception.

So We Look to the Sky started off in such a way that I didn't know that this book would be for me. However, Misumi Kubo takes an extreme situation to set up the vignettes of her characters within. Reading about these characters' lives after such an event, and their relation to it as well as each other unfolded in a genuine and meaningful way. Throughout these vignettes, the characters are closely connected - they directly know each other - however as their own lives unfold, we meet new characters who add great depth to the book. Even though it begins with the climax, so to speak, the beauty of the book lies in the the exploration of people and their internal character, as well as the inevitability that time does continue on.

I adored the book, and look forward to more from the author and translator, and would recommend it to those who enjoy contemporary literature, contemporary Japanese literature, and translated literature.

In a series of connected short stories, Misumi Kubo explores the the silent and unseen hardships faced by individuals and how one’s life and future are shaped by such experiences. Each story is framed by a scandalous affair between a high school student and a housewife, posted on the internet for the public to see. The ramifications of this affair spread out across each story as Kubo weaves a profound and brutally honest story focused on themes of the female body, roles of women in society, the increasing burdens and social pressures placed on youth, and bullying.

First, I must point out that, if you haven’t read this novel yet, it is very sexually explicit. If that isn’t your thing, then you may want to look elsewhere. With that said, even though this novel is explicit, it isn’t gratuitous, and each sexual encounter, each exploration of the body and human intimacy, serves as a crucial vehicle for a more serious discussion of the themes Kubo explores here.

One of the most prominent themes linking the stories in this collection is two-fold: that of the female body and women’s roles in society. In this framework, Kubo criticizes patriarchy’s view that women are not sexual beings and should not seek sexual gratification lest they be viewed as “dirty.” In this vein, Kubo outlines the importance of the female orgasm as integral to women’s well-being sexually as well as holistically–she outlines that female sexuality and sexual fulfillment is the foundation of women reaching full autonomy and agency in their lives. This concept is juxtaposed with traditional notions of general roles and norms as constructed through Machiko. She is Keiichiro’s mother and mother-in-law to Anzu, our adulterous “main character.” I call her the main character because her affair is the elephant in the room for each story in this collection. Hers is the body at the center of the “woman question” that Kubo interrogates. Machiko is positioned as the female body preferred by tradition: angelic, fertile, the perfect mother who sacrifices herself for her children and family, sexless, and who now devotes herself to her daughter-in-law’s fertility–or lack thereof. She’s everything Anzu is not. The more Machiko imposes herself on Anzu’s body, the more Anzu rebels and is repulsed by Machiko. We are to sympathize with Anzu, who is happy in who she is and how she lives her life. She chooses to be childfree and as the system–Machiko–further imposes itself, the more destructive its force becomes. This, Kubo illustrates, is not the way.

Diving further into the rest of the stories, we get a peek into the lives of several high-school students who are friends with our other “main character,” the quiet and cool Takumi, who becomes infamous for his affair with Anzu. We get a glimpse of what his affair does to the girl who maintains an unrequited crush on him; we see his friend, living in the projects and struggling to support himself and his grandmother while trying to consider his own life and goals. Then we see Takumi and the consequences of his relationship with Anzu.

The text shifts to Takumi’s friend, Ryota, who deals with economic disparities and class divides in his narrative. These struggles are juxtaposed with the seemingly posh lifestyle of his manager Taoka, with whom he works a late shift at a convenience store. Ryota is the victim of a neglectful mother who steals his money and has abandoned him with his senile grandmother, and who–it could be inferred–prostitutes herself to men for lodging while working a menial factory job. Meanwhile, Ryota and his gran struggle to even feed themselves. In the midst of this, he is bullied for his friend Takumi’s involvement with Anzu after their affair is published online. You learn that one of his co-workers, who tries to help him with schoolwork and grades, turns out to be a pedophile. Ryota’s story is an interesting contrast to Takumi’s, as in many ways, as Takumi’s predicament allows Ryota to turn victimizer in certain situations, while reflecting on what it means to be the bigger person.

In these stories, victimization runs as a rampant theme, showing that the choices we make, and the way we treat others, has profound and reverberating effects on the people around us–and we are responsible for the aftermath in those lives. Nothing is ever a truly victimless crime, and often, the harm we do others can last a lifetime. Also important in this text is the concept of social norms and how society makes no space for marginalized groups or individuals, and how that needs to change. Overall, the book asks pertinent questions about social change, social responsibility, and the morality of the way we treat others.

All of the above is wrapped up in a very engaging, quick-paced prose dressed in a brutally honest and forthright tone. The translation never faltered, and I feel it captured the original. I blazed through this book so fast, and it was an amazing ride. I highly recommend this book.

This book, So we Look to the Sky, was definitely sexually explicit, and some of the liaisons might be deemed inappropriate, but it does offer lots of perspectives and viewpoints related to sex, relationships, and personal interactions. I'm always fascinated about this, but not everyone is. So pick it up if you're open to reading a sexually focused book.

The story follows the intertwined lives of five central characters - Takumi (15 year old boy), Anzu (a married woman), Ryoto (Takumi’s friend), Nana (Takumi’s friend) and Takumi’s Mum. All these characters are dealing with issues such as poverty, depression, bullying, single parenthood in their respective lives. Each chapter looks at events from the perspective of one character that gives the readers glimpses into their past lives, appreciation for the subsequent choices they make in their lives and how their stories come together.

The plot is contemporary and observes the cycle of life and the fragility of it - from birth of a child (Takumi’s Mum is a midwife), life events (Takumi’s secret affair with Anzu, who is bullied all her life and its impact on their family and friends) then finally death (Ryota’s father commits suicide, babies delivered by Takumi’s Mum that don’t survive birth).

From cosplay sex with an older woman to an unrequited crush on a kid in your class. Some relationships are on the edge of what is acceptable and others are too safe. The characters have to deal with the expectations and judgments of others that overshadow what they want for themselves. Step by step, they begin to explore the relationships that make them happy.

The five stories in So We Look to the Sky build on each other, showing how different people deal with the same incident and what else is going on in their lives. As people’s motives and thoughts are exposed, you begin to look at their actions in a different way. These stories remind you not to judge until you know the whole story. All the stories highlight a different aspect of relationships, both romantic and non-romantic. For most of the characters, their relationships and sexual endeavors don’t turn out quite as they expected.

After reading the first few stories, I wrote that the stories in this collection are not very upbeat, but I have since changed my mind about that. My memory of So We Look to the Sky is one of tenderness: if I could influence the stories with my thoughts, I would use gloves so as not to disrupt the life the characters are building for themselves. They’re going to make it…

My favorite story is A Goldenrod Sky. I don’t know if it’s good that I have fond memories of the subtle interactions between Taoka and Ryota, but I do. I still stand by the idea that everything that happened was told and nothing happened between the lines. After all, the other stories contain explicit (sex) scenes.

I like how all the characters realistically look at their situation and their desires and hopes for life. Most are aware of what the “easy” option would be, but they try to do what feels right for them. All of the stories grabbed me from the beginning. Together, they reduce the distance between you and the main characters as you read about the characters hesitantly taking their first steps toward – or away from – the person they love.

Book Review
Title: So We Look to the Sky by Misumi Kubo
Genre: Literary Fiction, Romance
Rating: 5 Stars
This novel is made up of five interconnected stories so like I did with Before the Coffee gets Cold I will review the stories individually and then see how they tie together. All I knew about So We Look to the Sky is that it partially follows an affair between an older woman and a younger man which is uncommon to see anyway but that it is also quite explicit which is very unusual for Asian fiction, especially Japanese.
Mikumari
In this story we are following a young boy as he has an affair with a married woman he only knows as Anzu. He met her at Comiket, an anime convention that happens in Tokyo but he has no interest in anime or manga, but when Anzu hits on him he responds to it. At this point they have an arrangement where he goes around to her apartment once or twice a week to have sex with her in cosplay and these encounters are always scripted and sometimes she paid him afterwards although he didn’t initially understand what this meant. By the time the summer approaches he and his Ryota have got jobs as lifeguards at the local pool where his crush Nana is also going to be working. As he grows close to Nana he tries to distance himself from Anzu eventually leading them to break up. However, he soon comes to realise he has formed at attachment to Anzu that Nana can’t fill and this is made worse after he sees her shopping for baby items and he imagines a life where they are together. Eventually like Anzu predicted he breaks down and returns to her but this is the first time they ever have sex as their normal selves and it is amazing for both of them. However, Anzu is going to America to find a surrogate for her and her husband’s baby because Anzu can’t have children. After learning of this the boy has a moment of self-reflection where he remembers going to a shrine in the mountain with his mother and father although never together. He remembers that he couldn’t read the name of the shrine correctly and his mother told him it was called the Mikumari Shrine. When he asks her what she is praying for she tells him all children, the ones that are alive and they ones that never got the chance to live and for some reason this reminds him of Anzu.
The Enormous Spiderweb Covering the World
The second story in this novel is Anzu’s although we soon learn that her real name is Satomi. Satomi has been bullied throughout her entire life which has a huge mental impact on her. In addition to this she lost her mother at an early age and she was still quite young when her father also died without leaving any provisions for her. Shortly after this she meets Keiichiro when he returns her phone and they begin dating, after only three dates he proposes and Satomi accepts because she doesn’t have to work anymore. We get some background into the couple and learn that Satomi is an otaku which is the main reason she was bullied a lot as a child and Keiichiro is seen as a stalker by many of the women he works with and that know him. After being married for some time, Satomi’s mother in law, Machiko begins asking them when they are going to start a family and despite trying it never happens. It turns out that Keiichiro has a low sperm count and Satomi has narrowed fallopian tubes resulting from an untreated STD in her youth making it virtually impossible for them to have children naturally. Despite this Machiko pays for them to have fertility treatments and nothing is working. It is around this time that Keiichiro and Satomi just stop trying leading Satomi to take up cosplay and soon after she and a friend, Kurumi go to Comiket. There they encounter a young boy, Takumi who see goes on to begin an affair with. Unlike the previous story we get to see the affair from her point of view which was interesting especially on her thoughts during their breakup and their last time together before she is heading to America. What was really interesting about this story was that Keiichiro was recording Satomi during her times with Takumi and her mother in law threatens to share the videos if she doesn’t go to America and during their last time she basically accepts that if her mother in law releases the videos that she doesn’t really care and she would accept a life with Takumi as she has previously thought about it and even calculated how much it would cost.
The Orgasm from 2035
This story is Nana’s as she comes to learn that pictures and videos of Takumi having sex with a housewife have been posted online. Initially she is hurt by this information as she really likes Takumi but after watching the videos she realises that someone else has posted these online as the post contain Takumi’s name and address but don’t show clearly who the woman is which means Satomi’s mother in law followed through on her threat. We learn about Nana growing up and how she was always overshadows by her genius older brother, Yusuke until he became involved in what I would call a sex cult practising Tantrism preparing for the end of the world in 2035. While Yusuke’s behaviour doesn’t change rapidly at first he soon goes missing for months before his friend, Hinata is able to locate him and their father brings him home. In the aftermath of all this Nana is trying to maintain her relationship with Takumi who is currently extremely depressed and is having trouble getting aroused by anything. Nana doesn’t understand this until she attempts to sleep with Hinata only for him to explain that sometimes when you love someone you can’t have you project those images onto other people like he had with her or you self-destruct which is what Takumi is doing. When a massive rainstorm threatens to flood Nana’s house, Nana ends up trapped in her brother’s bedroom with her mother, brother and Takumi while they wait for the rain to pass. When it finally does Nana realises that even though she is mad at Takumi she understands his actions and hopes that one day they might be able to have a normal relationship.
A Goldenrod Sky
This story is Ryota’s, Takumi’s best friend as we learn he is from a very poor area known as the projects and all the kids there are basically seen as write offs but no one understands what it means to be a project kid. Ryota is currently caring from his senile grandmother as his mother is almost completely absent from his life and his father Yoshio committed suicide a few years ago. Ryota’s interactions with his mother made me extremely angry as she provides him money but not enough to survive on meaning Ryota works two jobs and while she is supposed to take care of the rent, utilities and Ryota’s school fees it soon becomes clear that she isn’t doing that. In addition to that the saving left to him by his father and the money he saved from working she steals from him before vanishing into thin air presumably with her new boyfriend. Ryota is struggling to deal with all of this when Takumi’s videos are leaked online and this leads him along with Akutsu, Nana’s friend to distribute the pictures because Ryota feels that Takumi has no right to as depressed as he is when his life has been nothing but good compared to his. Ryota ends up becoming good friends with another convenience store employee, Taoka as he helps Ryota get his grades up and provide him with the focus and drive he has needed. Taoka lost his job as a teacher after he was found to be in possession of child pornography but that doesn’t stop him from helping Ryota and Akutsu whenever he can with no ulterior motive. At the end of this story, Ryota is at his wit’s end with how to care for his grandmother and Taoka helps him get his grandmother into a hospital and gets he linked up with a social worker who will help him out with fees, bills and anything he needs help with. It was sad to learn that Taoka had been arrested towards the end of this story using a similar method on those children as he had with Ryota and Akutsu but he’d never shown an ill intentions towards them and even went above and beyond to prevent them from ending up like their parents or like him.
Pollen Nation
The final story in this collection belongs to Takumi’s mother who runs a birthing clinic along with Mitchan. We briefly get to see her life before and how it has mirrored her son as she was sexually involved with an older married man before she met the man who would become her husband and Takumi’s father, so she understands completely what he is going through right now even if she hasn’t said anything. Her job is a very difficult but rewarding one as she brings many children into the world but she also has to watch many die as they don’t survive or are stillborn. She seems to be coping really well with Takumi’s disgrace and her friend Doctor Lui helps her through it too and there seems to be a slight romantic tension between them although it doesn’t go anywhere in this story. However, she is heartbroken for her son when someone learns a child’s urn on the doorstep containing ashes that might or might not belong to a child with a note claiming it is Takumi and Anzu’s child. She has to watch her son get better only to suffer another major setback however, the thing to bring him out of his depression this time is his teacher getting pregnant and Takumi is around the majority of her pregnancy and when she comes to stay at the clinic to give birth, Takumi is there waiting for the child to come into the world.
Overall, So We Look to the Sky centres around the key event of Takumi’s affair with Satomi being made public and it is essentially an interwoven tale about how he, Satomi deal with the repercussions of this as well as his mother, his best friend and his would-be girlfriend. These stories really focused on the human elements and how flawed the characters are which was really interesting to see. While this book is quite explicit in the first two stories especially by Japanese standards it isn’t anywhere near the explicit literature we see in Western culture so don’t let that put you off reading it. 5 out 5 stars, highly recommended.

I really enjoyed this book, it remembered me a little of #keigohigashino #themiracleofthenamiyageneralstore or #automaticeve in terms of the story being told from multiple perspectives across different short stories. The main premise is quite shocking but v interesting and got me hooked straight away. I like the type of reads as they keep me engaged without being too intense. I think the only thing it lacked was some sort of puzzle that is formed by the connecting stories or a conclusion as such but overall I loved it.

- highly sexually explicit
- characters were pretty different and all are trying to deal with life's various difficulties
- Each chapter offers a different POV
- Super Quick Read

You can definitely give this book a try to experience something different.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC copy of the English translation of So We Look to the Sky. The novel is five vignettes where the characters' lives from previous chapters overlap. In the first chapter, an "incident" of sexually explicit nature occurs, and the stories that follow all connect like a spiderweb to that event. The second chapter will even explain what precipitated to actually cause this event. I found the writing style of the novel was engrossing me in the story immediately. It is unfortunate that several of the main characters are minors (approximately 15) and having to deal with very adult situations, but that happens in life often. The story's main character would be Takumi Saito. His life interweaves with classmates, his family, and a stranger he meets who basically turns his life upside-down. In the midst of the story, there is a typhoon which creates some additional drama. This is one of those books that leaves some lingering questions. All the characters stories aren't neatly tied up and all motivations for the events that transpired aren't revealed, but I really enjoyed reading it. I would say this might appeal to fans of Sally Rooney's work.

So We Look to the Sky by Kubo Misumi is a book that doesn't pull punches even from page one. It is highly sexually explicit, so if that's not your cup of tea you should probably not pick it up, but if that doesn't worry you, the story offers a thoughtful glimpse at a selection of characters all trying to deal with life's various hardships, from bullying to sex, to social status and single parenthood. Each chapter offers a different POV; although all the characters are linked in some way. Thus, we see the book's inciting incident through many different perspectives. I was captivated by the piece right from the get go and continued to find it interesting and engaging until the end. The prose flowed nicely, and it was a reasonably short work at 172 pages, making it a quick read that I finished over two nights. It gets 4.5-stars from me, which I would round up to a five.