Genre: Short
Stories/Japanese Fiction
Date of Publication:
May 31, 2001
Memorable Quotation:
“Hello?” “Please don’t hang up. I swear this isn’t a prank call…” For some
reason, the idea of a prank call on an imaginary phone amused me.” (pg.20)
If you liked these,
you’ll like this: Twentieth
Century Ghosts by Joe Hill.
Lasting Impression:
The three stories story in this wonderful
collection are touching in their own way; each exploring the power of human
relationships and what it means to feel love in its purest form.
Storyline: A+
Pace: A
Characters: A
Ending: A
Overall: A
Unlike Otsuichi’s other short story collections that include more gruesome, graphic detail, the three stories in Calling You are more lighthearted, although death is a reoccurring theme in them too. When you think about the title of this collection (which is also the title of the 1st short story), I not only think of Celine Dion’s Song “Calling You” but also the image and emotions I feel. I can imagine someone calling to a lover or a friend either in happiness or in shock, the syllables of the name never sounding like poetry until that moment, and to have a title make me emotionally invested into the book before reading it is pretty good reason to think this will be a home run.
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The first short story is Calling
You, which was my favorite one. Ryo
is a quiet girl who is so lonely that she creates a cell phone in her mind, wishing
she had friends to call. After a while, she can see the phone clearly in her
mind, as if it is real. One day, she
hears a phone ringing, and it turns out it is her imaginary one. The caller is a boy around her age, Shinya,
who doesn’t have any friends and made an imaginary phone too.
The way they find each other and help each other cope in a
world that initially rejected them is beautiful, and although the ending is
heartbreaking, the twists that come out of such a short story is incredible.
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The second short story is Kiz/Kids. The narrator, who
we never learn the name of, belongs to the “special” class in school because of
violent outbursts and while there, he meets a boy names Asato who has a very
special gift; he takes scars, bruises, burns, and injuries from people and puts
them on his so they won’t feel pain. He
is used for his gift, unfortunately, and it nearly kills him. As this happens, the
young narrator gets a first hand look at why it is rare that the pure do not
stay that way forever.
At first I thought it was just a “cute” story but as the
characters develop and back stories come to light, I realized this was a much
deeper, more painful, plot than I had first realized. I was very impressed with
the story overall, especially with the ending, and how the two boys learned
that with love comes sacrifice and with sacrifice comes a bond that is
unbreakable.
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The final story is called The Flower Song. The story centers around a man who was in a
horrible train accident (which is only mentioned) and how he is in a hospital,
recovering from emotional scarring from losing his lover in the crash. As he wanders the hospital grounds, he comes
across a clearing and sees a giant tree has fallen. Underneath it is a flower
that appears to be humming. The rest of
the story centers around the narrator and his relationship to the flower. What the narrator learns about family and
reincarnation is extremely profound, and the imagery Otsuichi gives the reader
when it came to the flower is amazing.
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All of Otsuichi’s stories in this collection are based
around family, love, and the pain that comes when we open our hearts to love. What makes his stories so exceptional is that
he takes the pain that love can bring and transforms it into personal growth
through his characters.
~Shelly-Beans
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