The Tatami time machine blues : a novel

The Tatami time machine blues A novel

Tomihiko Morimi, 1979-

Book - 2023

In the boiling heat of summer, a broken remote control for an air conditioner threatens life as we know it in this reality-bending, time-slipping sequel to The Tatami Galaxy. During a scorching August in Kyoto, our protagonist and his worst friend, Ozu, are locked in a glaring contest in a four-and-a-half-tatami-mat room. Ozu has spilled Coke on the air conditioner's remote control-the only AC in Shimogamo Yusuisuiso, their famously shabby sweatbox of an apartment building. Vengeful and despairing, our protagonist discusses countermeasures with his secret crush, the reliably blunt Akashi, when Tamura, a strange young man with a bad haircut, appears.Tamura claims to be a time traveler from 25 years in the future, and shows off the time ...machine he uses to travel. Our protagonist has a brilliant idea: the sweetest revenge would be to go back one day in time and retrieve the functioning remote control. His simple fix is complicated by Ozu and several others who are also eager to take a ride back in time. But in attempting to alter the past, our protagonist foresees the world's extinction. Even more troubling, Akashi mentions she's bringing someone to the upcoming bonfire . . . and it's not him. Only one thing remains certain: it's going to be a very long month.Obliteration? Salvation? Coca-Cola? Castella cake? What does the time machine hold for our (not quite) heroes? It all depends on which one gets there first.

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Subjects
Time travel > Fiction.
FICTION / Magical Realism.
Kyoto (Japan) > Fiction.
Science fiction.
Science fiction
Novels.
Time-travel fiction.
Genres
Science fiction
Novels
Time-travel fiction
Published
New York : Harpervia 2023.
Language
English
Japanese
Main Author
Tomihiko Morimi, 1979- (author)
Other Authors
Emily Balistrieri (translator)
Edition
First Harper Via hardcover
Item Description
Originally published as Yojō-Han Time Machine Blues in Japan in 2020 by KADOKAWA Corporation.
Physical Description
182 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN
9780063158498
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Morimi's darkly comical The Tatami Galaxy debuted in Japan in 2004, inspiring a 2010 anime series. Billed as a sequel, this title appeared in 2020, but in fact, Morimi adapted his novel from playwright-director Makoto Ueda's live-action Summer Time Machine Blues (2005). Ueda, in turn, created the 2022 anime; he also contributes the afterword here. While readers of the original Japanese endured 16 years of waiting, anglophone audiences got lucky with a mere year in between Morimi's novels; gratitude for both translations goes to Balistrieri, who deftly channels the frenetic fun. Our (still) unnamed student narrator has moved upstairs to 209, the dilapidated building's only four-and-a-half tatami room with air conditioning. Summer should have been bearable, but someone spilled Coke on the AC remote, which somehow means "the entire universe [is] at risk of destruction." Meanwhile, the usual suspects are gathered to make another film, with visits to a used book fair and a public bath pending. And what's that "dorky guy" saying about a time machine? Yep, this hot August 12 is undoubtedly gonna be one of those days.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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