Set My Heart on Fire
A Novel

I’ve read two short story collections by Izumi Suzuki; the first of these, Terminal Boredom, was incredible, while the second, Hit Parade of Tears,seemed to drop off quite significantly in terms of quality. When Terminal Boredom was published, I could find very little information on the author – th......more

2.5 I'm sorry but I found this book quite boring. It tells the story of Izumi who spends her time having sex with members of bands who she doesn't ever seem to particularly like. They whistle (or ring) and she goes to them - sometimes they have sex and sometimes they seem to get bored of the idea bef......more

The narrator here is a sort of libertine who dates musicians. With an "affected quality to my affection" (9), she endures "a thousand nights in the same place at the same time" (10)--"It's always the same day, over and over. And here I am chasing good times like a maniac. There's nothing else to do.......more

i’ve been intrigued by izumi suzuki’s work for a little while, but i held off on reading her until now because i’m not a huge short story person. so i was excited to see that her debut novel was finally translated into english! i found this book to be fine - the writing was sharp, it was a quick rea......more

Major thanks to NetGalley and Verso Books for offering me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts: "‘𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘣𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘴,’ 𝘐 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮." As all debuts go, this one's imperfect, cluttered, and unfocussed, but Suzuki's brilliance shines through in her o......more