Book of the Week: Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton.

The Japanese language differs from English in having a delineated category of mimetic words—words that sound like what they mean. Barton uses a sequence of fifty of these onomatopoeia, from giro’ to uho-uho, to structure a memoir of her developing relationship with Japanese and with Japan, from teaching language on a small Japanese Island when she was twenty-one to her eventual career as a Japanese literary translator and now writer. This interesting book is also a record of Barton's exploration of freedom and identity in the interstices of language.

>>Read Thomas's review. 

>>Uwaa: the sound of the feeling that cannot be spoken. 
>>Connection fever. 
>>A new Japanese dictionary. 

>>"The book draws deeply on philosophy and linguistic science but applies itself to real life in a singular manner."

>>Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, translated by Polly Barton. 

>>On translating Where the Wild Ladies Are. 
>>There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura, translated by Polly Barton. 
>>Spring Garden by Tomoka Shibasaki, translated by Polly Barton. 
>>Readings from Spring Garden. 

>>Read Fifty Sounds!