The Lonesome Bodybuilder

Stories

By: Yukiko Motoya

Narrated by: Natalie Naudus, Brian Nishii, Erin Bennett, Richard Powers, Tanya Eby, Kate Mulligan

A housewife takes up bodybuilding and sees radical changes to her physique - which her workaholic husband fails to notice. A boy waits at a bus stop, mocking businessmen struggling to keep their umbrellas open in a typhoon - until an old man shows him they hold the secret to flying. A woman working in a clothing boutique waits endlessly on a customer who won't come out of the fitting room - and who may or may not be human. A newlywed notices her husband's features are beginning to slide around his face - to match her own.

In these 11 stories, the individuals who lift the curtains of their orderly homes and workplaces are confronted with the bizarre, the grotesque, the fantastic, the alien - and through it, find a way to liberation. The Lonesome Bodybuilder is the English-language debut of one of Japan's most fearlessly inventive young writers.

BBC Culture Magazine Pick

Akutagawa Prize

Kenzaburo Oe Prize

Vulture.com Pick

Nylon Magazine Pick

Millions.com Pick

Huffington Post Pick

Bustle Pick

©2018 Yukiko Motoya (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Weird, until I caught on

It took me most of the first story to realize the intentional weirdness of the stories. They were not exactly horror in the gothic sense but imaginative "what ifs" set against the backdrop of normal, everyday life. The stories kept my attention. When the book was finished, I wanted more. I appreciated the narrators not overplaying the different roles, instead, applying some light seasoning to the inflections and moods.

magical, strange, delightful

¡ love magic realism. this author wields this genre with agility of a swordfighter. some of the stories are linear and tidy and others are expansive and inconclusive. the author is great at writing a scene that i am fully immersed in yet all of these stories are strange. if you like haruki murakami or phillip k. dick, you should definitely read these stories.

Quirky

This is everything you could want from a quirky collection of short stories, though the stories were not as compelling as I’d expected.

Surreal Sad Lady Stories

I was super excited to hear a slice of life piece about a woman becoming obsessed with bodybuilding. Unfortunately, that story is the shortest one in this collection, and it's unsatisfactory. Although these stories portray female main characters, the characters focus heavily on their awful husbands and they don't have much personality or plot arcs outside of that aspect. Some fun, visceral, and truly bizarre scenarios are described in this collection which kept me listening, but they never have a purpose, conclusion or statement to make. It's almost like long winded poetry about sadly married and repressed women from a repressed woman's perspective. I wish more stories challenging expectations or gender roles existed. The reading voice of this book is really great however. It's soothing if you just want to zone out.

Interesting stories

There is some surrealism, a little reminiscent of Yukio Mishima. Some stories are better than others, but overall the collection gets 4 stars. Most of the narration is great, even with different narrators.

This author does interest me and I would be interested in a full novel.

The Ethereal Everday story

Fantasy that is so relatable you hardly notice the impossibilities.
The English translation seems to capture the emotional undercurrents. These stories read like a chat with the most interesting person you know

Very interesting collection of short stories

Most of the stories are quite interesting with unusual plot. Thoroughly enjoyed it. The narration was pretty good as well.

Magical realism stories

I liked some of the stories, but overall the collection felt very uneven. The narration was fine but it felt like there was so rhythm or reason behind the narrator shifts from story to story which was strange.

lost in translation

Many stories made no sense - assume it must have been due to the translation to English.