From Publishers Weekly In this collection, his American debut, Tsutsui—recipient of a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres—amplifies the absurdities of contemporary life to usually entertaining results. In The Dabba Dabba Tree, the erotic dreams caused by a phallus-shaped plant create havoc, as sleeping and waking life are confused for both dreamers and nondreamers alike. In Rumours about Me, a dull office drone becomes an unwilling celebrity, his every action recounted in breathless detail by the media. Other stories are less lighthearted, such as Commuter Army, featuring a weapons supplier in the thick of a foreign war, and Hello, Hello, Hello! in which a Household Economy Consultant cheerfully insinuates himself into a couple's life and leaches every small happiness from them. Tsutsui is less interested in his characters than in teasing his ideas out as far as possible. While this technique has its cerebral pleasures and his writing can be humorous, the application of his one-size-fits-all narrative mold grows tiresome. (Nov.)
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From School Library Journal Imagine a cross between the music group the B-52s, Thomas Pynchon's V ., Ryu Murakami's Coin Locker Babies , and James Turner's graphic novel Nil: A Land Beyond Belief , throw in a good dose of sf tropes and bitter social satire, and you'll start to get a good idea of what's in store for you in this collection of 13 imaginative stories from one of Japan's best-known sf writers. The climactic (pun intended) title story, "Salmonella Men," depicts a group of beleaguered scientists exploring a new planet dubbed Planet Porno, on which everything has decidedly obscene plans for them. Though the collection is hit-or-miss overall, the title story and "The Dabba Dabba Tree," in which a magical tree affects the dreams of an entire neighborhood, are brilliant examples of Tsutsui's skills as a storyteller. Tsutsui has won numerous awards for his fiction over the years, including the Tanizaki and Kawabata prizes, and he has no problem moving from one genre to another. Driver's translation works well with some stories but sometimes falls flat in trying to capture the wildness of Tsutsui's vision. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.—Andrew Weiss, Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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zlib/Crime, Thrillers & Mystery/Short Stories/Tsutsui Yasutaka/Salmonella Men on Planet Porno: Stories_1680566.mobi

Poruno Wakusei no Sarumonera Ningen

Yasutaka Tsutsui; translated from the Japanese by Andrew Driver

Golden Books Publishing Company, Incorporated

Pantheon Books

Vintage Books

United States, United States of America

1st American ed, New York, ©2006

lg_fict_id_451182

"Originally published in Japan as Poruno wakusei no sarumonera ningen by Shinchosha, Co., Ltd., Tokyo, in 1979"--T.p. verso.
English translation originally published: London : Alma, 2006.
Translation of: Poruno Wakusei no Sarumonera Ningen.

<p><P>This collection of marvelously off-kilter short stories &#8211; the American debut of acclaimed Japanese writer Yasutaka Tsutsui &#8211; portrays the consequences of a world where the fantastic and the mundane collide and throw the lives of ordinary men and women into disarray.<P>In &#8220;The Dabba Dabba Tree&#8221; Tsutsui describes the hilarious side effects of a small conical tree that, when placed at the foot of one&#8217;s bed, creates erotic dreams that metamorphose into communal farce. In &#8220;Commuter Army&#8221;&#8211;a sly commentary on the ludicrousness of war&#8211;a weapons supplier whose rifles cease functioning after just one shot becomes an unwilling conscript in a war zone. &#8220;The World is Tilting&#8221; imagines a floating city that slowly begins to sink on one side, causing its citizens to reorient their daily lives to preserve a semblance of normality. In &#8220;Rumors About Me&#8221;, an ordinary office worker finds himself the subject of intense media scrutiny, his every action documented in the tabloids. And in the title story, we learn just how obscenely absurd the environment on Planet Porno can seem to a group of hapless research scientists.<P>With a sharp eye towards the insanities of contemporary life, Yasutaka Tsutsui crafts in <i>Salmonella Men on Planet Porno </i>an irresistible mix of imagination, satiric fantasy, and truly madcap hilarity.</p><h3>Publishers Weekly</h3><p><P>In this collection, his American debut, Tsutsui-recipient of a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres-amplifies the absurdities of contemporary life to usually entertaining results. In "The Dabba Dabba Tree," the erotic dreams caused by a phallus-shaped plant create havoc, as sleeping and waking life are confused for both dreamers and nondreamers alike. In "Rumours about Me," a dull office drone becomes an unwilling celebrity, his every action recounted in breathless detail by the media. Other stories are less lighthearted, such as "Commuter Army," featuring a weapons supplier in the thick of a foreign war, and "Hello, Hello, Hello!" in which a "Household Economy Consultant" cheerfully insinuates himself into a couple's life and leaches every small happiness from them. Tsutsui is less interested in his characters than in teasing his ideas out as far as possible. While this technique has its cerebral pleasures and his writing can be humorous, the application of his one-size-fits-all narrative mold grows tiresome. <I>(Nov.)</I></P>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.</p>

'Salmonella Men On Planet Porno' is a collection of 13 surrealistic short stories on human folly.
The Dabba Dabba Tree
Rumours about me
Don't laugh
Farmer airlines
Bear's wood main line
The very edge of happiness
Commuter army
Hello, hello, hello!
The world Is tilting
Bravo Herr Mozart!
The last smoker
Bad for the heart
Salmonella men on Planet Porno.

A collection of offbeat short stories from an acclaimed Japanese author explores the folly of human desire in a world in which the fantastic and the mundane collide to throw the lives of ordinary men and women into disarray

2011-11-04