Reviewing In Ghostly Japan

Hi,

              This cycle, I read In Ghostly Japan, by Lafcadio Hearn. It had a similar structure to the book I read last cycle, Neil Gaiman’s Mythology. I chose this book because of the similarities and because I was interested in the subject matter. The book was also relatively short, making the book seem less daunting. The structure of the book was: a backstory, a story, and then more reflection and deeper meanings laced throughout the stories. The book was very well researched, and the translations felt easy to read and made sense. The reflections occasionally were hard to read, however many of the reflections were good. The author wrote in a formal tone and added many details to the stories as well as background information.

              A section of the book that I especially enjoyed was a chapter about incense. It detailed many facts about incense at the time and showed how people used it, including a game where incense was burned and then the player had to guess what it was. It also showed parts of the ghostly aspect of incense. Another part of the book that I enjoyed was Silkworms. It was a chapter in which the speaker learns about silkworms and their how they related to the culture. The reflection for silkworms was interesting because it compared us to silkworms. Another thing that I enjoyed throughout the book were the little portions of art scattered throughout the chapters, which contributed to the energy of the story.

              Overall, I would rate this book a 7/10. I think it was very well researched, however it did get boring and wordy at times. There were little footnotes at the bottom with additional detail. I liked these because if I was interested in something, I could read more about it. This method lets the stories feel well researched and detailed, without adding too many additional details to the text. The chapters were also short, which meant that it was easy to read little chunks at a time. The assembly of different stories, translations, art, and reflections was good. I would recommend this book to anyone that has an interest in Japan hundreds of years ago and ghosts.

Thanks for reading,

Thomas Ballard