Finished *Memoirs of a Polar Bear* this morning. Fun read! At times quite moving. A good read for encouraging subtle shifts in the way we think about other beings and their being in the world.

I had once cobbled together a list of stories that took the perspectives of animals, or made animals the main characters. Tawada's book takes the first-person perspective of polar bears for two of its three parts; the remaining part is told from the perspective of a human trainer of a bear, but with a twist that still centers the bear's experience at times.

Storytelling felt a bit uneven at times but the overall spirit is one of near giddiness: Tawada's bears are part of the human world and move through it -- at least, as they'd tell it -- with capacities for language and understanding. Though sometimes tinged with pathos, you can sense Tawada's joy in writing this, bringing three animals to life as full characters on the page.

I might revisit that list and cross a few more titles off soon.

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Book 31: “3 Streets” by #YokoTawada.

Three short stories named after streets, which themselves are named after famous people, in East Berlin. Surreal things happen. Tawanda’s writing was slippery for me and I ended up glazing over and skimming. There’s more there for people who know what to look for, but I wasn’t one of them. Finished only because it was so brief.

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@mario

Thank you for this mini review, I am intrigued and now must read Tawada's book. As a German native speaker, I'll go for the German version. Paul Celan was immensely important to me when I was young, aesthetically and also, in a sense, politically. I could recite all of his first volume Mohn und Gedaechtniss by heart, and the way I speak today and give rhythm to my sentences very likely has Celanesque elements. Looking forward to Tawada's book!

#YokoTawada #PaulCelan