The official Elizabeth Saccente website - news

Kabuki

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:40:00 +0000

I'm kicking myself. Having just attended my first ever kabuki performance — Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees at Sadler's Wells in London — I'm annoyed that I never went in Tokyo. Yes, I was busy with work. But the truth is, I thought it would be boring: long, drawn out scenes in impenetrable ancient language with droning music and song. I should have known better.

The production, featuring Ebizo Ichikawa XI, was a perfectly balanced visual, musical and dramatic confection. I loved the acrobatic battle scenes, the little bits of stage 'magic' that made characters pop up where you weren't expecting them, the exquisite beauty of the costumes and sets. But what struck me most was how familiar it all was. The conventions of kabuki , the imagery, the dramatic poses, have so insinuated themselves into Japanese culture over the 400+ years of its existence that I have seen them everywhere...in advertising, on television, in cinema and even in the way people relate to one another.

Having been so focussed on modern Japan and its post-Meiji economic and political history, I have neglected some of the cultural traditions that would round out my understanding. I'll be sure to plan my next visit to Tokyo around the kabuki season.

CrimeFest 2009

Fri, 22 May 2009 11:34:00 +0000

Ann Cleeves, Caro Ramsay, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Aly Monroe, Martin Edwards and Stephen Booth were just a few of the dozens of writers who made the three-day festival in Bristol fun, entertaining and instructive. There were numerous panels discussing every aspect of crime writing from police procedurals to pushing your characters over the edge. The ‘Angels with Dirty Faces’ panel was particularly good, as was the ‘Crime in Foreign Climes’, both of which touch on my series. Aside from discussing the books, there were many insights into other writers’ lives and way of working.

A highlight for me was the Workshop led by veteran crime writers Peter Guttridge and Janet Laurence, and I am especially grateful for their comments on my own work. Peter also organised a pub quiz, moderated a panel and conducted entertaining interviews with the 2009 Diamond Dagger recipient, Andrew Taylor, and American crime writer Michael Connelly.

All in all it was a packed three days with the breadth and depth of crime writing on display. I can’t wait until next year!

Murakami and the Egg

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:38:01 +0000

Last month Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami travelled to Israel to accept the Jerusalem Prize. A lot of people told him not to go. But he went and he spoke. He spoke elegantly about writing fiction and about simple, beautiful humanity. "Each of us, he said, is, more or less, an egg...a unique, irreplaceable soul enclosed in a fragile shell...And each of us...is confronting a high, solid wall...The System." In his writing he seeks to reveal that soul while at the same time keeping The System in a critical spotlight. In going to Jerusalem he did just that.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1064909.html

What's real? What's right?

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:43:42 +0000

When Australian author Peter Carey invited his manga -addicted 12 year-old son to visit Japan, the boy agreed on condition that they avoided ‘the REAL Japan’. No temples. No museums. No tea ceremony or kabuki. Carey senior accepts this, hoping nevertheless to fan his hitherto reticent son’s interest through the ‘back door’ of its modern youth culture.* Why, with Japan more than any other nation, it seems, is the question of what’s ‘real’ so vexed? My introduction to the country began in the New York office of a major Japanese trading company. That three-year-and-a-bit experience inspired a lifelong interest. And yet, when I began my formal studies fellow students who had been on one-year high school exchanges delighted in telling me how little it had to do with ‘real Japan’. Likewise, when I moved to crowded, noisy, congested, exuberant Tokyo, I was continually urged, mainly by foreigners, to get out of the city to see and experience the ‘authentic’ culture. I knew that for ‘authentic’ I should read ‘traditional’. And I was, and am interested in traditional Japanese arts, literature and religion. I am as happy to visit temples there as I am to visit cathedrals in Europe. Ditto museums and castles. I read both contemporary and classic Japanese authors, collect new and old pottery. But for me what was, and always will be ‘real’ about Japan is the modern urban lifestyle shared by 75% of its inhabitants. As an outsider with an abiding interest and an analytical bent, I cannot help coming to my own conclusions about Japanese national identity and the way the nation’s past informs its present. Indeed, it is a subject of debate among the Japanese themselves. So I was dismayed to read that author Carey’s thoughtful attempts to analyse some of the more popular graphic novels and anime films were often dismissed – politely, of course -- out of hand by the writers, artists and directors he interviewed. But was he really so wrong? Or were they simply reacting in the knee-jerk ‘foreigners are incapable of understanding we Japanese’ mode? Carey did manage to drag his son to some traditional culture, most notably a long afternoon at kabuki , the description of which made even me restless. But they found their ‘real Japan’ in the lobby of publishing company Kodansha’s head office where they met the transsexual otaku (geek) author of the world-wide bestselling manga series Mobile Suit Gundam . Never mind that s/he pooh-poohed all of Carey’s theories, s/he still embodied some of the best things about Japan: creativity, fastidious attention to detail, and generous hospitality. *Peter Carey, Wrong About Japan . Faber and Faber. 2005

Congratulations to Diane Janes

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:50:00 +0000

Many congratulations to Diane Janes who has landed a book deal with Constable and Robinson for her crime novel, The Pull of the Moon . I met Diane at the 2006 CWA Dagger Awards. She had been shortlisted for the Debut Dagger for the second time and her entry was highly commended. She will be the fourth author from the 2001 Debut Dagger shortlist to be published and, if I’m not mistaken, the second from the 2006 list. Diane has been a great source of fellowship and support through our email exchanges and I wish her all the best for the success of her book.