Mrs Murakami’s Garden by Mario Bellatin, translated by Heather Cleary, begins shortly after Mr Murakami has died. His widow is Izu, once a young woman working to succeed academically and professionally in a male-dominated field of art criticism. She makes waves when she writes a cutting critique of the private collection of a rich older man, who then begins to pursue her hand in marriage.
Bellatin’s novel is short and effective, getting deep into the difficult and sexist world of the patriarchy, and the ways it has slowly ruined Izu’s life. Its true genius lies in its ‘addendum,’ a list of notes that almost challenge the text itself, all presented as facts, asking the reader to judge for themself what the truth is. And Heather Cleary comes in herself as a meta-textual writer: her translator’s note is heavily and amazingly inspired by a Jorge Luis Borges story. The book begins as a novel about a young woman and the immovable patriarchal structures that limit and move her despite her best efforts to strike out into independence; it ends asking us about truth, translation, and how the reader judges where the novel ends and reality begins.
Content warnings for suicide, terminal illness, pedophilia mention, blackmail and extortion.
