Considered something of a counter-cultural icon in Japanese literature, Izumi Suzuki worked as a hostess, keypunch operator and actress before turning to science fiction. Briefly prolific, she produced a series of disquieting, irreverent short stories that one might describe as ‘kitchen sink sci-fi’ before taking her own life in 1986 at the age of 36.
Hit Parade of Tears is the second collection of Suzuki’s stories to be translated into English, and it is stronger even than 2021’s Terminal Boredom. It displays the best (and occasionally the worst) of Suzuki’s literary tendencies: brief, morbid stories like ‘Full of Malice’ and ‘The Walker’ exhibit some deliciously cruel comic timing, while more expansive tales like ‘My Guy’, ‘Hey, It’s A Love Psychedelic!’ and ‘The Covenant’ explore the power and vulnerability of young women as they flirt with, and occasionally embody, otherworldly danger. Suzuki’s stories are most compelling when the extra-terrestrial remains enigmatic, landing merely in deadpan punchlines. The less successful tales in this collection are those in which the aliens actually land, disenchantingly real (‘Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise’, ‘I’ll Never Forget’).
Suzuki’s work exercises considerable influence on contemporary Japanese writers, particularly Sayaka Murata. And when Suzuki forgets the mechanics of intergalactic world-building and simply radiates an uncanny vibe, it’s easy to see why. As one of her young women enthuses: ‘So powerful! So vulgar! So sublime!’
Words: Eve Hawksworth
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