Based in Berlin, the Japanese author Yōko Tawada (b. 1960) likes to write her books in both German and Japanese in parallel, and thus positions herself most willingly in the space between two very different languages. When the fatherland disappears, the language becomes home In “Scattered across the globe” she takes the language confusion to a new level. The first thing we learn is that Japan is gone, literally: The country has a sock in the sea. Japanese Hiruko, who is based in Odense, is completely homeless. Together with the Danish linguist Knut, she set out on a journey to find others who speak Japanese so as not to forget her mother tongue. It may sound tragic, but Hiruko takes the situation with surprising good humor. After several years in Scandinavia, she has already created a new language: “Panska”, or pan-Scandinavian. Panska works perfectly well for practical purposes. But there is still something about Japanese. Fresh fish and outdated stereotypes Knut and Hiruko are looking for a Japanese conversation partner for Hiruko and are long on the trail of a Japanese sushi chef, Tenzo. When they find him, it turns out that his name is Nanuk and he is an Eskimo. And yes, he insists on being called Eskimo, as it means “one like a raw fish”. A perfect name for a sushi chef. Since it was better to be an exotic Asian than a frowned upon Greenlander in Denmark, he has played along when people think he is roughly from Japan, and willingly answered questions about Buddhism and Japanese food culture. Stupid stereotypes and misinterpretation of ethnicity led Nanuk to a place where he found himself at home: the sushi kitchen. Rootless, homeless, happy? So. Is this a novel that trivializes all tragic displacements of people, that believes that people should adapt easily and cheerfully to anything, wherever they end up? That language and identity are fleeting matters that can be exchanged, easily and painlessly? It is possible to see such a perspective in the extension of this novel, if one goes too far. SPREKT: Japanese Yōko Tawada enters conflict zones around identity and language, using humor as a weapon. Photo: Knut Hoem / Solum Bokvennen What Tawada does is to insist that displacement can provide experiences, insights and absurd misunderstandings that are well worth taking with you. Identity is not something that can be changed, but he is clearly a flexible thing that can easily be expanded in surprising directions. “Life is rather monotonous with only one identity,” claims Nanuk/Tenzo, who grew up on sausages and farmed salmon bought on the internet. Tawada let Japan sink into the sea and exposed innocent Oslo to a terrorist act reminiscent of 22 July. Ho explains that the Moomintroll lived in exile in Japan during the Cold War. And she throws a randomly assembled group of young people into passionate language discussions, from geeky word interpretations and all the way into airy language-philosophical reasoning. Humor in looted conflict zones This is how she mixes the improbable that has not happened, with the improbable that has actually happened. Curiosity and tragedy. I was surprised when the 22nd July reference had ended up in the grinder and into the text in bits and pieces, but on closer reflection I see that the pieces defend their place in the larger context. The big connection with Tawada is that language, no matter how lame it is, can be a key to opening up encounters between people, and yes, happiness. It is a refreshing and optimistic perspective against a gloomy background. The author puts a lot of work into illustrating the point, and less into bringing the characters to life. The latter is not so important, since Tawada manages to slip the humor into some of the most plundered conflict zones of our time. news reviewer Photo: Solum Bokvennen Title: “Spreadt over the whole globe” Author: Yoko Tawada Publisher: Tara Ishizuka Hassel Genre: Fiction Publisher: Solum Bokvennen Date: 2022 Hi! I am news’s chief fiction critic and have closely followed the writing of Karl Ove Knausgård . If you want a guide to the author’s novels, you can read my Røff guide to the Knausgård universe. And here you will find all the book reviews my colleagues and I have written about Knausgård’s books.
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“Spread Across the Globe” by Yōko Tawada – Reviews and Recommendations
