{"id":289836,"date":"2012-04-02T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wdev.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent-dev\/2012\/04\/02\/i-am-a-japanese-writer-by-dany-laferriere-25-days-of-the-btba\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T14:39:32","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T14:39:32","slug":"i-am-a-japanese-writer-by-dany-laferriere-25-days-of-the-btba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2012\/04\/02\/i-am-a-japanese-writer-by-dany-laferriere-25-days-of-the-btba\/","title":{"rendered":""I Am a Japanese Writer" by Dany LaFerri\u00e8re [25 Days of the BTBA]"},"content":{"rendered":"

As with years past, we’re going to spend the next week highlighting the rest of the 25 titles on the BTBA<\/span> fiction longlist.<\/a> We’ll have a variety of guests writing these posts, all of which are centered around the question of “Why This Book Should Win.” Hopefully these are funny, accidental, entertaining, and informative posts that prompt you to read at least a few of these excellent works.<\/em><\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for all past and future posts in this series.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n

I Am a Japanese Writer<\/em><\/a> by Dany LaFerri\u00e8re, translated by David Homel<\/p>\n

Language:<\/b> French
\n\u2028Country:<\/b> Haiti\/Canada
\nPublisher:<\/b> Douglas & McIntyre<\/p>\n

Why This Book Should Win:<\/b> On one level this is a calmly experimental and defiant novel that dismisses the label \u201cworld literature\u201d as a cheap marketing ploy. It\u2019s also a loving reminiscence of formative readings experiences that continue to haunt and fuel the writer\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s post is by Matthew Jakubowski, a writer and literary journalist who\u2019s written for<\/em> Bookforum, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Quarterly Conversation, Barrelhouse, and<\/em> BOMB<\/span>. He lives in West Philadelphia.<\/em><\/p>\n

Laferri\u00e8re fled to Montreal from Haiti during the Duvalier regime after some of his fellow journalists were killed. Throughout his career, he\u2019s refused to let race or nationality define him or his work and I Am a Japanese Writer<\/em>, blends fiction and autobiography as its writer-narrator, also a black writer from Haiti living in Montreal, causes a small international incident after he tells his publisher his new novel, which he has yet to start writing, will be called I Am a Japanese Writer.<\/em><\/p>\n

I made a case for this potent little novel in my positive review for The National<\/em>,<\/a> a book which Laferri\u00e8re dedicates to “everyone who would like to be someone else.\u201d This phrase is meant somewhat literally, in that it\u2019s directed at book lovers, implying that in Laferri\u00e8re\u2019s view we read with the silent hope or expectation that at some point we forget our own life and have the chance to feel like someone else. <\/p>\n

One of the best aspects of this book is the comforting rhythm and ease with which Laferri\u00e8re assembles an increasingly madcap plot and various digressions about his writing career, switching perspectives and tone so easily and assuredly that after the first few short chapters it doesn\u2019t matter what aspects are true or completely invented.<\/p>\n

The result is a funny yet sharp and experimental novel that meanders with purpose, intercut with memories from the narrator’s early life in Haiti, and riffs on the influence of Basho, Borges, and Baudrillard.<\/p>\n

The plot\u2019s fairly simple: pressed for time, the writer throws out a crazy book title to his publisher, who loves it and cuts the writer a check, who leaves the office laughing. Complications follow as the writer tries to research the book, and things get out of hand when a Japanese consul tries to intervene. <\/p>\n

But the writer\u2019s joke on his publisher turns out not to be a joke, because he says, “I really do consider myself a Japanese writer.” But how can a Haitian writer living in Montreal claim to be Japanese? Eventually, Laferri\u00e8re gives one form of answer: “Years later, when I became a writer and people asked me, ‘Are you a Haitian writer, a Caribbean writer, or a French language writer?’ I answered without hesitation: ‘I take on my reader’s nationality. Which means that when a Japanese person reads me, I immediately become a Japanese writer.’”<\/p>\n

At another point, he elaborates on this idea: “Born in the Caribbean, I automatically became a Caribbean writer. The bookstore, the library and the university rushed to pin that title on me. Being a writer and a Caribbean doesn’t necessarily make me a Caribbean writer . . . Actually, I don’t feel any more Caribbean than Proust, who spent his life in bed. I spent my childhood running. That fluid sense of time still lives in me.” <\/p>\n

Writing like this kept me reading and loving this book, wondering about what happens to the self during the time that we read, and what becomes of us later on as we remember and keep reassembling those memories of books we loved.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As with years past, we’re going to spend the next week highlighting the rest of the 25 titles on the BTBA fiction longlist. We’ll have a variety of guests writing these posts, all of which are centered around the question of “Why This Book Should Win.” Hopefully these are funny, accidental, entertaining, and informative posts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67476],"tags":[45686,45656,44096,46196,3426,46186,44086,46176,28786,1646],"class_list":["post-289836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-translated-book-awards","tag-25-days-of-the-btba","tag-btba-2012","tag-dany-laferriere","tag-douglas-mcintyre","tag-french-literature","tag-haitian-literature","tag-i-am-a-japanese-writer","tag-matt-jakubowski","tag-quebecois-literature","tag-review"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319326,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289836\/revisions\/319326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}