Sayuta Murata is best known for her incredible debut novel Convenience Store Woman which I loved so when I saw her first short story collection Life Ceremony come up on @netgalley I knew I immediately wanted to read it and was delighted to be approved.

Life Ceremony is a wonderful selection of short stories each exploring the relationship between the individual and the society are they are in, all in very different ways which are all in parts subversive, taboo and often stomach churning as the human body is a constant theme throughout
There are a number of stories which really appealed to me that are set in futurist dystopian societies. In first story, A First-Rate Material our protagonist is living in a world where dead bodies are recycled to make the most prized consumer commodities such as jewellery, furniture and clothing. We first meet her wearing a cardigan made of human hair which her fiancée disapproves of. She struggles with his antipathy as he is the only person in their society who is revolted by these human consumables and it means she can’t buy the most desirable products despite being able to afford them such as wedding rings made from human bones. This situation continues until he encounters a situation which forces him to face his fears. The titular, Life Ceremony is another story which stands out, it’s set in a somewhat stomach churning dystopia where funerals are now renamed Life Ceremony’s where you eat the deceased’s body as a hotpot and then after their meal, the mourners pair off to have sex or insemination as it’s now called in the hope of getting pregnant. In essence, the circle of life is completed at the life ceremony. Our protagonist is old enough to remember when eating human flesh was prohibited but feels out of place as she is the only one who has an issue consuming it but has her views challenged throughout the story.
The other stories tend to be the reverse where it’s normal Japanese society but the protagonist is different and trying to navigate their place in the world as they don’t fit in properly.
I really enjoyed this book as I love Murata’s dystopic worlds and if you loved Earthlings by Murata then you will absolutely eat this up (minus the human flesh) 😊
Many thanks to @netgalley and @GroveAtlantic for providing me with an ARC in return for an honest review.

»Normal is a type of madness, isn't it? I think it's just that the only madness society allows is called normal.«

After reading both novels of Murata, I was excited when these short stories were announced! From the narrative style, we get nothing new—but I simply LOVED the fact that all stories revolve around outsiders of some kind. Typical for Murata's work, we also get topics like cannibalism and recycling of human bones, teeth, etc., as cutlery, accessories or furniture. Some of the shorter stories weren't for me, but all in all I was very happy with the others. Recommend!!

A wonderful collection of horror and bizzaro-type stories, rooted in urban anxieties in contemporary Japan. I love Sayaka's deadpan prose style, which lets the myriad and quite diverse range of horrors speaks for themselves and uses, and the sly satire throughout---commenting on everything from body anxiety to status-seeking. Charmingly psychotic characters, a B movie glee in plotting, and really next-level dialogue make this a standout collection. The only downside is I wish there was a tiny bit more tonal range. That said this is a great book to having in yourself as a worthy companion to Yogo Ogawa's Revenge or Drowning.

From the publisher: In Japan, Murata is particularly admired for her short stories, which are sometimes sweet, sometimes shocking, and always imbued with an otherworldly imagination and uncanniness. In these strange and wonderful stories of family and friendship, sex and intimacy, belonging and individuality, Murata asks above all what it means to be a human in our world and offers answers that surprise and linger.

Review:
So I've loved Murata's first novel - Convenience Store Woman - I thought it was so brilliant in its simplicity and so capturing. However, since then all of her books haven't really been working for me and this one unfortunately also didn't. I do have a harder time with short stories - I find it really hard to get into it and the minute I find myself in them the story ends. It doesn't have the same character and plot development as novels do for me. I did like some of the stories but overall this book wasn't for me. 2/5 stars

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for my free ARC.

I love Sayaka Murata's work so when I saw this arc I knew I immediately had to read it. This is a 13 short story collection, each story was bizarre and unsettling. This is more on par with Earthlings than Convenience Store Women. With that being said she explore similar themes found in her previous books. If you want to read any Sayaka Murata this would be the perfect introduction to her. My favorite stories were the first one (A First Rate Material) and the last one (Hatchling) I had to take a little pause after I read these two to really think and process the message they gave. I feel like I can't say too much without spoiling anything but just know if you like to read weird/slightly disturbing but thought provoking books I highly recommend this one overall I give this 4 stars.

I'll be posting this review on Aug.5 at
https://www.instagram.com/chibichapters/

Thank-you NetGalley and publisher for the chance to review this ARC.

I'm a big fan of short stories. So I was beyond excited for this one.
Sayaka Murata has such a distinct voice that reading their work completely transports you to the stories.
I adore this collection it's up there with my favorites from the one and only Haruki Murakami.

Perfect for fans of Murata! This book is definitely not for everyone, but perfect for those who enjoy the unnatural, the disturbing, and thinking outside the box of societal norms.

This short story collection had some hit or miss stories for me. The best stories were ones that concerned the grotesque--Murata writes very intimately and frankly about a society that repurposes the dead. It was both so abject and tender--I was truly in awe of how Murata was able to balance these two seemingly opposing affects.
Some of the stories fell a bit flat for me, particularly a couple stories that felt like compressed retellings of novels she's previously published. Overall, the stories I enjoyed are some of my favorite short stories--I always enjoy how Murata writes about those on the outskirts of society & their relationship to the world with exacting oddness and tenderness.

This set of short stories….creepy, touching, funny: as expected from Sayaka Murata. The different stories were all fun and enjoyable, and I think one was a follow up to Convenience Store Woman?

tw: cannibalism, incest, body horror

I think it's safe to say that Sayaka Murata is an auto-read author for me. I thoroughly enjoyed Convenience Store Woman, was utterly disturbed by Earthlings, and yet, I couldn't resist picking up Murata's latest short stories collection which is the perfect blend between her previous two works. There is no denying the brilliance that is Sayaka Murata's mind.

There are 12 short stories in this collection and each one is wildly imaginative, bizarre and uncomfortable. They are written from the perspectives of women and inanimate objects and touch upon themes of family, identity, relationships, and belonging and as always, tackle taboo topics that make us question everything from culture, traditions, ethics, behaviour and moral choices.

I enjoyed most of the stories but here are 3 that stood out to me:
A First-Rate Material — a story about turning human skin and bones into clothing and furniture after they die. It compares the way we accept using animals for products so why can't the same be done to humans? Oddly strange and mildly disturbing but an intriguing first story to pull you in!

Life Ceremony — the title story!! it is customary in this story to have a life ceremony after a person dies, cook and eat them, and then go off to create a new life with others who attended. A story with cannibalism in it; but thankfully, I wasn’t put off by it. Maybe cause I read Earthlings first 😅 This was wild, and disturbing but makes you think about how norms change so fast over time, and what we think is taboo might not be in 30 years time.

Hatchling — a very relatable story about a young woman who changes her personality depending on the environment and people she hangs with to the point she is unsure which personality is truly her. I love this one as I think everyone can relate to this in some small way or another. It was an amazing story to close out this collection!

A wildly weird collection of short stories and I expected nothing less from Sayaka Murata! Life Ceremony is out now and I recommend checking it out if you're able to stomach some of the more disturbing stories.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the e-ARC!

I have two things to say about the stories in this book. Firstly, they were very weird and secondly, I loved every minute of reading them.

Each short story in "Life Ceremony "contained a strange element, be it cannibalism, using human body parts for clothes and jewelry, or a sentient set of curtains. But despite being fully aware that what I was reading was weird, the author's writing (as well as the skill of the translator) made it easy to be sucked in and go with the flow. Some of them even left me with a warm feeling. The story about using human parts for everyday accessories, for instance, left me smiling at how it portrayed a couple looking for a compromise and the relationships we have with family.

While I don't feel entirely confident in labeling this book as magical realism, there's definitely something for you here if you are a fan of that genre or if you like strange and vaguely unsettling. The writing is beautiful and we'll worth the read.

My thanks to Net Galley and Grove Atlantic for my copy.

Ethical Extremes: On Sayaka Murata’s Life Ceremony
July 25, 2022 | in Reviews | by Ruwa Alhayek

Over and over again, throughout these stories, we are confronted with the question of consumption, literal and figurative.

Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata, translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori, Grove Atlantic/Granta, 2022

From Sayaka Murata, the award-winning author of Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings, comes Life Ceremony, a debut compilation of her short stories. The collection is unsettling, paved with the disturbances of odd people and new customs nestled amidst familiar words and routines;. Instead of burials, human bodies are recycled—a beloved father-in-law’s skin might be used as a bride’s veil, a person’s hair for a cardigan, human bones for chair legs. Instead of funerals, there are life ceremonies, where mourners dress in “skimpy clothing” to partake in eating the body of the deceased before going off in pairs for “insemination.” One woman is convinced that she has been reborn into an ordinary family in contemporary Japan, when in her previous (real) life, she was a warrior with supernatural powers from the magical city of Dundilas. Another woman falls in love with her curtain and feels betrayed when she walks in to find her boyfriend (who somehow has confused it for her) wrapped in its folds on her bed.

Sayaka Murata is a master of delivery, and in Ginny Takemori’s translation, it becomes clear that the way to convey these odd stories in all their philosophical force is to do it deadpan, matter-of-factly, and sometimes, coldly. But—there are breaks, moments that aren’t so much characterized by their coldness but by their sincerity, their characters’ confusion, and their loss. When Naoki, who is ethically opposed to using furniture or clothes made of human corpses, faces his late father’s dying wish to have his skin used in his son’s wedding, he is thrown off balance and says vacantly: “I can’t. . . I don’t. . . I really don’t know what to think anymore. Until this morning, I was confident about how to use words like barbaric and moved, but now it all feels so groundless.” We are made to sympathize with him even amidst bombardments of oppositional, universal ideas, derived from a new ethics that says discarding any part of a human is wasteful—one that asks: how is using human hair any different from using another animal’s?

In “Life Ceremony,” Maho can’t bring herself to partake in the ceremonial eating of the dead following an instance, thirty years ago, when she was bullied for suggesting the very thing that everyone does so casually now. She says to her friend Yamamoto, who also doesn’t eat human meat: “It’s just that thirty years ago, a completely different sense of values was the norm, and I just can’t keep up with the changes. I kind of feel betrayed by the world.” I too felt betrayed by the world in Murata’s novel, suddenly becoming painfully aware of how fast change comes via contemporary mediums—how many of our habits and values are dictated by global capital, and how much effort it takes to resist, even if only for the reprieve of a few moments to think and form opinions. How lonely it is both to belong to a world like this, and to be an outlier.

But there are also characters that move beyond hesitation and confusion, choosing to opt out entirely. In “Eating the City,” Rina, unable to stomach the awful vegetables sold at the grocery stores in Tokyo, begins to harvest her own dinners of wild vegetables all over the concrete city—dandelions, obako and fleabane leaves. At the beginning of the story, she reminisces about her childhood in the mountains, where her father picked wild strawberries and ate the sparrows he shot himself, and she realizes that her life has turned out entirely unlike the one she expected for herself. “Wouldn’t it be nice,” she muses, “if I could take evening walks and pick my own food, the way my father did.” As she begins to do that, she realizes after some time that hunger sharpens her senses; she can gather plants far more effectively when she hasn’t eaten, and she knows where to look. As the days pass and her excursions become a daily activity, she remembers that she likes the way her sneakers look when they’re covered in dirt, and she (re)learns how to “walk like an animal.” Slowly, in Rina’s new relationship with the city around her, it begins to shed those “artificial symbols” she has grown to see. Readers get the sense almost immediately that Rina is more than just nostalgic, that she remembers more than what she is aware of—something older, something primordial. Soon enough, Rina learns to see even inanimate objects, cold buildings and crowded taxis, as emitting warmth and sounds just like other “life-forms in the forest.” She makes it her mission, then, to make sure that everyone around her feels the same way.

“Body Magic” also features a character, Shiho Hashimoto, who has chosen to step away from the status quo by ignoring it entirely, and, when her classmates come dangerously close to ruining “something really important to [her] by turning it into a laughing matter, ” perks up the courage to mutter something like an incantation in response. Her friend, and the protagonist of this story, finds relief in her relationship with Shiho, and an escape from classmates who insist on “talking dirty” with her. For the protagonist, these classmates are worldly and mature, but something—though without Shiho, she can’t discern what, makes her very uncomfortable. . “Somehow I get the feeling,” Shiho explains, “that if you talk too much about it, you might know how to kiss, but you’ll no longer be able to kiss your own way.” The finality of this statement might be understood as childish naivete of , but it also, it drives home something Murata illustrates multiple times over: that we are a consequence of the external factors that have seen us through our lives, the people who surround us, their conversation, the food on our tables and in our bodies, the furniture in our houses, and that certain truths—ethics, world views, lifestyles—are very difficult to regain once they are lost.

Over and over again, throughout these stories, we are confronted with the question of consumption, literal and figurative. Some of Murata’s characters eat human meat while others refuse to; some insist on using corpses for furnishings and others reject the practice entirely; they eat wildflowers that grow around their city or cook food from magical cities; they either ignore their peers completely or adopt one of five new personas to please them. But it would be a disservice to Murata’s work to suggest that she is only concerned with the question of moral ambiguities and whether morality can be universal or timeless. While Murata does push the question of what it means to live an ethical life to its extremes and upsets common social standards without providing any final conclusions, what is most compelling in her collection is how each story pushes us to consider, and then re-consider, who and what we consume; what we allow to become a part of us, to make us—and in her refusal to provide any ready-made solutions, Murata asks us to begin the collective work of coming up with an ethics that responds more fully, more mindfully, to our contemporary predicaments.

Ruwa Alhayek is a Ph.D. student at Columbia University, studying Arabic poetry and translation in the department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies. She received her MFA from the New School in nonfiction, and is currently a social media manager at Asymptote.

I enjoyed Convenience Store Woman but was a bit too squeamish for the short stories in Life Ceremony, Sayaka Murata’s first short story collection to be translated into English. I love Murata’s bizarre, deadpan sense of humor, but recurring discussions on cannibalism and the uses for deceased bodies left me feeling lightheaded. Revulsion is an intended part of the reading experience, and the horror stems from how ordinary the concepts are to the characters in this world. For example, in one story, a happily engaged couple is planning for their wedding day. The problem is that they fundamentally disagree on the ethics of buying human-based furniture (e.g., bone tables, chandeliers made of teeth and nails). The wife-to-be doesn't understand her fiance's reservations--from her point of view, these items are trendy and functional, allowing people to be a part of the world even after death. In the titular story, a young man is cooked in refined recipes at his life ceremony, a ritual where the deceased person is consumed by family and friends. Overall I thought this book was a thought-provoking, albeit stomach-churning, exploration of social norms and how cultural expectations define the grotesque.

Sayaka Murata is fantastic and this was fantastically good.

Creepy and weird and I loved every bit of it.

Incredibly haunting, I read a story and then let it sit with me and my mind to let myself absorb each of them. A stunning mix of humor, incredularity and horror. I adored this book and will definitely use some of the stories for high school classroom use.

Thanks to Grove Press and NetGalley alike for the opportunity to discover more fantastic literature in translation. Sayaka Murata does it once again; her unique essence comes back with these amazing and peculiar stories.

Exactly what a reader would expect from Sayaka Murata. Slightly creepy and fantastical stories that are just strange enough to evoke weird feelings.

Another fabulous and thoughtful reading experience by Sayaka Murata.
What a trip! As it goes with short story collections, some I enjoyed more than others. That's why this only gets 4 stars.
I really enjoyed "First Rate Material", "A Magnificent Spread", "Life Ceremony" and "Hatchling".

The topics are highly interesting and makes you question our culture, ethics, behavior and moral choices and how they might change over time.

I'm eagerly awaiting the author's next novel.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

LIFE CEREMONY is a wonderfully weird collection of short stories. Murata has an incredible ability to turn what we consider bizarre, repulsive and sometimes outright macabre into things that demand thought and contemplation. How is what we consider palatable (or not) shaped by social convention? With topics such as ceremonial cannibalism and the utilisation of human remains for fashion and furniture, these stories are not for the faint of heart, but I highly recommend this read for anyone who can stomach it’s topics.

Thank you Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for this ARC.
This is an author who has been on my TBR list for a while now,. This latest book of 12 short stories is a fabulous introduction to her writing. This style is different to my usual reading genres, some stories I enjoyed more than others but thankfully I have found an author I look forward to exploring further.