Life of a Counterfeiter is the third in a series of recently re-translated works by Inoue that Pushkin Press have released. Containing the titular novella and two other short stories that are appearing in English for the first time, it’s a fine collection of tales dealing with ambition, rejection and the power of memory.
Life of a Counterfeiter is narrated by a character who has been hired to write a biography of a celebrated artist called Keigaku, but wracked by writer’s block, the narrator instead finds himself being sidetracked by an old acquaintance of the late painter; a one-time friend and a man best known for passing off counterfeited versions of his work named Hōsen. He soon becomes entranced by Hōsen’s life and the downward trajectory it took as Keigaku’s work and name became better and better known. It’s a carefully plotted novella looking at the relationship between success and failure, art and talent, rejection and obscurity.
Reeds describes a half-remembered memory of childhood involving a young couple the protagonist can’t place, and the search he goes on to discover their identity and how they were connected to him. It’s both a sad look at the power of rumour and a musing on the fragmented and spotted nature of memory, tied together with an elegant metaphor involving playing cards. Mr Goodall’s Gloves is also about memory, concerning itself with the rose-tinted idolisation of a mentor and the importance placed on a stranger’s kindness in a world that ignores you.
All three stories are measured and calming, evoking the sombre and wistful post-war feel of Japan in the same way his previous novels have. Life of a Counterfeiter is certainly the stand out work here, but all three have a beautiful flow and are of just the right size, so that you can sink into and absorb them in one sitting; which feels like the right way to imbibe something as delicate and fine-tuned as these.