{"id":117562,"date":"2022-02-09T17:52:08","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T23:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=117562"},"modified":"2022-02-16T17:31:05","modified_gmt":"2022-02-16T23:31:05","slug":"local-book-reviews-by-conor-hultman-at-the-edge-of-the-woods-by-masatsugu-ono","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/local-book-reviews-by-conor-hultman-at-the-edge-of-the-woods-by-masatsugu-ono\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Book Reviews by Conor Hultman: “At the Edge of the Woods” by Masatsugu Ono"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two Lines Press ($16.95); Available April 12; preorder at Square Books<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Masatsugu Ono<\/strong>\u2019s latest novel, At the Edg<\/strong><\/em>e of the Woods<\/em>,<\/strong> is an unsettling domestic odyssey about the fear and uncertainty abounding in the mundane. A father, mother, and young boy live in a house deep in the woods. There are four chapters, each titled after their focus: \u201cA Breast,\u201d \u201cThe Old Leather Bag,\u201d \u201cThe Dozing Gnarl,\u201d and \u201cThe Cake Shop in the Woods.\u201d In the first story, the mother leaves the father and son for the evening at home. The son has previously \u201cbegged his mother for a grandmother\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou already have a grandmother and grandfather,\u201d I said. \u201cTwo of each, in fact!
You can have your pick.\u201d
\u201cNooo,\u201d he whined, near tears. \u201cI want a grandma that\u2019s all mine!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What begins a relatable, slice-of-life episode ranges into the darkly mythic when the son goes to play in the woods and comes back with a mostly naked elderly woman, his very own \u201cgrandmother.\u201d Here the story becomes a masterwork in suspense and tension derived out of the minutest interactions. The fairytale underpinnings elevate the warped nature of the plot. Not to spoil anything, but the ending of the \u201cA Breast\u201d section is disquieting in that most perfect way of classics by Poe and Hitchcock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambiguity and anonymity also help to create suspense out of seemingly nowhere. No one is ever properly named, and the geographic setting of the book is totally unknown. So, on top of the layers of the everyday and the fable, there is an atmosphere of unreality. Ono shows a wide dexterity in tone, as well; some passages choose to underscore neutral, or even light-hearted, qualities, while others highlight mundanity. The copy on the back of the book claims it is \u201can allegory for societal alienation and climate catastrophe,\u201d which is certainly a valid interpretation. While I didn\u2019t come to that idea naturally in my reading, the human world and the natural in At the Edge of the World<\/em> are certainly at odds; it appears that Ono\u2019s characters cannot make sense in the context of Nature. However, the true pleasure of this book isn\u2019t its message, but its method. Ono writes understated, almost minimalist stories that compel in a way that defies understanding. If you sometimes don\u2019t feel quite right where you are, this novel will suck you in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Two Lines Press ($16.95); Available April 12; preorder at Square Books Masatsugu Ono\u2019s latest novel, At the Edge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123467,"featured_media":117396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20522],"tags":[20523,20584,5,4,602],"class_list":["post-117562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-conor-hultman","tag-masatsugu-ono","tag-mississippi","tag-oxford","tag-square-books"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/2022-02-03-Book-Reviews.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123467"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}