Decoded A Novel by Mai Jia

 

 

One of the initial things that interested me about Decoded is that it is published by Allen Lane, something which is quite unusual as the imprint usually only publishes non-fiction, at first I thought it could have perhaps been a book that had strayed over from the popular science bays, looking further it also seems that another novel by Mai Jia, In the Dark, (which won Jia the Mao Dun Literary Prize in 2008), is due to be published in June, early information available about the book mentions that it'll feature one of the same settings as Decoded, (Unit 701), I'm looking forward to reading In the Dark, which is interestingly described as being structured as a filing cabinet. Another aspect about Decoded that caught my attention when browsing it is that it comes with a recommendation from filmmaker Wong Kar Wai, this was enough of a poke in the ribs for me to read further. Decoded opens in the style of being a family chronicle  before taking it's time to settle into focusing on it's main character - Jinzhen, who also is given the nick name of Zhendi by his adoptive sister and before this earlier in the novel he is also referred to as Duckling, the time period that the novel is situated in begins sometime prior to the war's beginning and goes on into the middle of the end of the last century. The family who acts as Jinzhen's adoptive family are the Rong's, a prosperous family of Tongzhen, this journey of his adoption is in places a complex one, but Jinzhen as a youth is primarily looked after by a foreigner - Mr Auslander, in his early years there are tell tale signs of his fascination with mathematics and numbers and after Mr Auslander's passing, Jinzhen spends his time working on calculating the exact number of days Mr Auslander had been alive as a slightly moving testament to his former adoptive parent, the initial figure is revised many times after the realization of his not factoring in leap years, but Jinzhen takes working out the equation to an even more precise degree.

 

Another foreigner that features in Jinzhen's life is Professor Jan Liseiwicz who teaches at N University who comes to realize Jinzhen's mathematical talent. The construction of the narrative is subtly crafted, at times as we follow Jinzhen's progress it can feel that we are traversing a rather narrow corridor with him as the novel explores the psychology of his genius and his rather enigmatic appearances to those that encounter him, largely Jinzhen leads a solitary existence, spending most of his time playing different variants of chess with Jan Liseiwicz, that is until Zheng the Gimp turns up. Not much is known about Zheng the Gimp, (his nickname is given to him due to his gait), it's known that he has connections or works for people in high office, he arrives at the university to scout for those who show a talent for mathematics, eventually he hears of Jinzhen and after a piece of enigmatic organising takes Jingzhen to a remote camp to work in code breaking. Rather than being a straight forward telling, Mai Jia incorporates a number of different techniques to relate the unfolding action of the novel with different perspectives, as the narrative progresses it becomes apparent that it has a journalistic and investigative tone, events are also told via interviews through people at the periphery of Jinzhen's story. At the edges of Jinzhen's progress we receive episodes from history reminding us of the external context, the Cultural Revolution, the Korean War, and at the same time there is the enigma of Jan Liseiwicz's true identity, a subplot to Jan's character is his pursuit of research into Artificial Intelligence and the advance in computer technology.

 

Whilst in the camp Jingzhen is put to decoding a notoriously difficult cipher called Purple and when he does crack it his status is elevated to being that of a national hero, which affords him to being able to intercede when his family is accused of being counter revolutionaries, people are stunned when he turns up back at his home town with all the power and authority that his position carries. Jinzhen's time within the camp seems to pass surreally, decades slip by while he works away trying to decipher another cryptic code this time called Black, but this proves to be harder than deciphering Purple, and on a return trip from a convention fate intercedes in the shape of a thief which sets Jinzhen's path on a different direction altogether. The novel has been described by some as being meta-fiction which I feel slightly uncertain about, but Mai Jia's approach to the structuring of Decoded is subtly original and inventive, in places the explorative tone in the narrator's investigations takes on being a mission in ascertaining truth between the speculative, at times reminding me of the narrator of Laurent Binet's, HHhH, it becomes apparent that perhaps Jinzhen's name comes to us as an alias, the line between what we know and what we don't begins to thin out, but what comes clear is a tale of the misappropriation of genius and it's devastating consequences. In Mai Jia's prose there is a fine balance between the understated and the explicit, and as he has described his writing is not what has come to be taken for granted as being stereotypical espionage writing.          

 

Decoded at Penguin

 

video of Mai Jia discussing Decoded and his writing

 

Decoded is translated by Olivia Milburn and Christopher Payne

 

           

The Investigation by Jung-Myung Lee



Being set in Fukuoka Prison at the end of the war, (the same location of Endo Shusaku's novel The Sea and Poison), this novel piqued my interest and also additionally the translation is from Chi-Young Kim whose translation of The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly I read recently. Written by Jung-Myung Lee the book incorporates a fictionalized retelling of the life of the Korean poet, Yun Dong-Ju, it opens with the murder of Sugiyama, a guard of the prison known for his merciless treatment of the prisoners, Sugiyama is found strung up with his lips sewn together, another young guard, Watanabe, takes up the investigation of the murder and inside one of Sugiyama's inner pockets Watanabe finds a poem written out on a folded piece of paper. Something which impresses about Jung-Myung Lee's prose is his ability to weave the story seamlessly between each of the character's pasts with that of Watanabe's investigation in the present tense. The first and primary suspect is prisoner Choi Chi-su, a notoriously violent inmate who is repeatedly sent to solitary after attempting to escape many times, as well as exploring the past lives of Sugiyama and Choi Chi-su and their paths to the prison we are given a portrait of Watanabe, whose father went away to war, leaving him behind with his mother who set up a bookstore in Kyoto, there's an interesting description of the store being a 'fortress of books', but then Watanabe receives his red letter calling him up and eventually his being stationed at the prison.

Watanabe's lines of inquiry into Sugiyama's past also lead him to another inmate, Hiranuma, (Yun Donj-ju's given Japanese name), who was imprisoned for organising political meetings and his involvement with the Korean independence movement, as the novel progresses it becomes apparent that Sugiyama who despised intellectuals and reading begins to have found himself becoming absorbed into the world of books and reading. Posted on Ward 3 of the prison, known for its violence Sugiyama was put in charge with censoring the mail going in and out,  Hiranuma being able to translate Korean to Japanese and only letters written in Japanese having any chance of passing the censor, Hiranuma writes postcards home for the other inmates, whilst writing these cards Hiranuma begins to include in them references and phrases of his favourite authors, in particular the poets Rilke and Jammes which sends Sugiyama searching through the library's shelves to check if they contain anything seditious and should be censored, slowly he begins to be lured into the world of books and the written word.

The book is told with a deep sense of humility and humanity, the jacket mentions that it is perfect for fans of The Shadow of the Wind - a book I've yet to read, but in writing this book and it's appearance in English translation Jung-Myung Lee and Chi-Young Kim  have done a great service in bringing attention to the life of the poet Yun Dong-ju, as well as this the novel is imbued with an appreciation of reading and the ability of the written word to transform lives and outlooks. The plot is full of the enigma's and cruelties of it's times and Watanabe's investigation leads him into uncovering an uncomfortably dark truth about the prison and its practices, the riddle of Sugiyama's death is left unsolved until the last pages of the novel.


The Investigation at Mantle/PanMacmillan

Sky, Wind and Stars at Jain Publishing

  

The Thief - Fuminori Nakamura

 

 

The Thief is narrated by a compulsive pick pocket who steals beyond his needs and although being at the centre of the book there are a number of interesting characters floating around, off camera so to speak with lives which we are only given a glimpse of, most prominently is, Saeko, who the thief has had a relationship with in the past. The novel was awarded the 2010 Oe Kenzaburo Prize, and translated by Satoko Izumo and Stephen Coates, as of yet it's the only winner of the prize that has been translated into English, Yu Nagashima, who was awarded the prize in 2007 with Yuko-chan no Chikamichi has been translated into Spanish, and Toshiki Okada who was awarded the prize in 2008 for, Watashitachi ni Yurusareta Tokubetsu na Jikan no Owari, has been translated into German. Although quite a slight book its dimensions are at times broad, and in some ways its a novel of two parts, or perhaps a number of shifting perspectives of befores and afters. The thief, (in one quick scene his real name is revealed as Nishimura, is it?), is involved in a burglary where the real target is not money but a cache of documents, the crime involves himself, two men he knows and has a history with, but is organised by a bigger gang, headed by Kizaki who he is not familiar with but the money is good, although money seems to have relatively little value to him. After the burglary they are told  to leave Tokyo, parts of the narrative is made of the thief's memories of his friend Ishikawa, (whom he sees with a touch of sentiment, as being a master pick pocketeer), that drift back prior to the burglary, Ishikawa's history eclipses but falls short with that of the narrator's in the present tense, as we learn that Ishikawa was killed after the burglary by Kizaki.

 

Another story line that arises is that of the thief's relationship with a young boy who he observes stealing in a supermarket, noticing that the boy is being watched by the store detective, he lets the boy and his mother know that they have been seen, afterwards the boy attaches himself to the narrator following him to his apartment, the narrator falls into being a somewhat reluctant father figure to the boy giving him money to buy the items on a list given to him by his mother, rather than letting him to continue stealing them. The boy's mother works as a hostess, albeit as a slightly free agent, she provokes his memories of Saeko, and more details of their relationship begin to emerge. Kizaki re-appears with the request, (more of deadly ultimatum which potentially involves the boy and his mother), that the narrator carries out a couple of pick pocketing jobs for him. Whilst Kizaki sounds him out about the details of the two jobs, he relates a story about a French nobleman and a boy whose fate he chooses to control, in the story the malevolent nobleman orchestrates events in the boys life throughout his life as he gets older, the story sounds like it could have been lifted from the writings of de Sade but it presents an interesting conundrum about the nature of fate which is mirrored in the relationship between Kizaki and the thief, and also by a further extension between the thief and the boy that he is trying to steer onto the right path, it's an interesting moment in the novel, juxtaposing the harsh nature of fate whilst also pointing to Sartre's famous quotation: 'We are our choices'.

In some ways and places the novel is slightly formulaic, the omnipotent knowledge of the evil Kizaki reminded me slightly of Koyama in Matsuura's Triangle, but this aspect is redeemed in that the novel's concerns supersede them and creates a space to contemplate these themes and portrayals, and ultimately their consequences, there's a scene where the thief contemplates a scene from his school days, where the thief takes a valuable watch which breaks and his teacher scolds him by chastising that it was: Too good for trash like you!, and this comes across as being central to the book, a portrait of the distortion of values in a society where value is held or only estimated in material worth, by thieving the thief is attempting to escape or transcend these values, or in addition to deny their worth, and to keep that cryptic tower at bay.

The Thief at Soho Press and also Corsair

for Oe Kenzaburo Prize page at Kodansha