Book Review
Title: Motion and Moments: More Essays on Tokyo
Author: Michael Pronko
Genre: Non-Fiction/Essays
Rating: *****
Reviews: Just like my two previous reviews of Michael Pronko’s essays I will be reviewing these essays in parts and I believe I am going to enjoy these essays as much as the others. I also can’t wait to jump into his fictional detective mystery series as soon as I can.
Part One: Surfaces
This opening section has to be one of my favourites by far as Pronko moves away from the philosophical question he has posed in his other collection to more practical ones. It was interesting to see some of the practical elements of living in Japan as a foreigner even though he has lived there for many years and how he often engages in the language dance with others to assess whether or not they speak English and how well while the other person is often assessing whether or not he speaks good Japanese. These little practicalities are very useful insights for someone looking to travel to or live in Japan in the future. Seeing the small insights into everyday life and what this means in context is delightful like the seemingly yet impossible choice between a futon or a bed is magical to read because it forces you to consider things you saw as insignificant before but take on a whole new meaning when you see someone else’s perspective on the issue. Pronko also doesn’t come across as a true Japanese person as he often makes mistakes and in awed by Japanese people and society despite having lived there for 15 years.
Part Two: Miniatures
Miniatures is an interesting section as Pronko discusses the issue of space in a country like Japan which is very densely populated. While there isn’t any extra space like in the US or the UK, people who live in Japan, native or not, have learnt to fit whatever they need in the available space they have. While this may lead to some tights squeezes in restaurants, bars, and trains, it is an essential part of daily life that everyone has to acclimatize to. Some of the times where Pronko talks about the shortage of space amaze me that 3 or 4 people let alone one or two dozen people can fit into them, but they do over and over again. I must prepare myself for when I travel to Japan that I might have a hard time getting into some places despite being relatively small in stature. I love the way Pronko writes and how he uses his own personal experiences to get his points across. If you need convinces you only need to read the essay Plastic City which I ended up laughing at, quite loudly I might add while waiting for a bus to the dismay of other commuters.
Part Three: Constructs
The opening essay to Constructs made me laugh out loud when Pronko mentions being fascinated by construction in Tokyo and his wife often tells him off calling him a little boy, which is something I do myself but with my younger brother. Constructs seems to focus on just that, how over time the city is constantly evolving and how people adapt to these changes. It is wonderful to learn some things about my favourite country in the world, from the fact that Japanese summers are extremely hot due to high humidity and even native Japanese struggle through it, how everything expands but not once inch of useful space is wasted like it is in other countries. As I have mentioned many times before Pronko injects a human element into his essays, which for me personally, makes them so interesting and exciting to read as they aren’t just pumping out facts and figures, it is coming from a man who lives it every day and experienced everything he is written about.
Part Four: Quaking
Quaking was the section I was most looking forward to as they seem to focus on what happened to Tokyo and the Japanese people after the 2011 earthquake. The first essay is dated March 18th just a week after the earthquake and resulting tsunami, Pronko manages to convey in just a few pages the sheer scale of the loss and devastation and how people like him who weren’t directly affected but they feel the mourning and sorrow as a nation than individual people. The second essay jumps forwards the June 20th where 3 months after the earthquake life hasn’t gone back to normal, the news continues to report different stories on the disaster some of which I remember seeing in the United Kingdom and it devastated me. Pronko has a difficult time as being a foreigner in Japan when so many were fleeing he fought to keep his life there as normal as possible, but nothing really seems to ease the pain of what happened. The third essay again jumps forward 3 months to October 2011, where life is beginning to move on after the earthquake but Pronko realises that this is one aspect of living in Japan that he will never get used to but continues to make himself prepared for future quakes. I would react similarly as the UK doesn’t have earthquakes – well, that’s a lie we have had some but there are extremely rare and usual very minor quakes while Japan located within the Ring of Fire is prone to them, and tsunamis as a result which would terrify me. In April 2012, Pronko writes about how the mourning period is ending and the city feels more alive than ever. Even though many of making plans for the future, if an earthquake hits again but there are also people shocked into doing more with their lives, people changed job, people got married and life moved on. The final essay dated June 2015, Pronko details the events he witnessed when 3 earthquakes struck and how in the space of a few years life had completely changed for him and almost everyone else in the country.
One final thing I want to mention about this part is that it doesn’t matter whether you have experienced an earthquake before, minor or major, you can feel the sorrow and anxiety that Pronko felt while writing these essay and that in itself is extremely powerful.
Part Five: Serenities
As we move into Serenities the final part of this collection I was wondering what on earth Pronko could write about after the earthquakes which were so raw and emotional. After reading 2 or 3 of these essays despite the light-hearted subject matter, I found it very difficult to concrete on them after the previous section. While I love Pronko’s observations everything felt a little off after Quaking but don’t let that put off reading these collections. Now I am done with these I am going to be breaking open The Last Train and The Moving Blade very soon.
The only criticism I have for this collection would be that the reading experience would have been better if section 4 and 5 were reversed. I understand Pronko may have been trying to lighten the mood after Part Four, but I personally felt it was undermining the importance of Quaking and the messages behind that section and the emotions Pronko put in his writing. If Quaking had been the last section all the light-hearted essays would be grouped together and the collection would end on a more serious note and while this may not be the ideal reading experience for most, it would have been the most impactful and Quaking definitely packs a punch.
Buy it here:
Paperback: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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