A Year in Reading: José Vadi
People From My Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami
“What we had thought was a child was actually a large bird. It had five fingers instead of talons, though, and a somewhat human face. “Scram!” Kanae screamed.” Welcome to the world of Hiromi Kawakami’s . When I was growing up in southern California, smog alerts negated recess frequently in the late ’90s, but never had I needed to run to a forest and grab hold of a tree when a no-gravity alert, like in Kawakami’s story “Weightlessness,” sends school kids in a frenzy, while the more experienced swing effortlessly between the floating vines. Just released, forces you to submit to the possibility of Kawakami’s stories that are perfect coffee-break-length escapes from (or comparisons to) our every day.
