A lonely teenage girl falls in love with her foster-brother as she watches him leap from a high diving board into a pool - sparking an unspoken infatuation that draws out darker possibilities. A young woman records the daily moods of her pregnant sister in a diary, but rather than a story of growth the diary reveals a more sinister tale of greed and repulsion. Driven by nostalgia, a woman visits her old college dormitory on the outskirts of Tokyo. There she finds an isolated world shadowed by decay, haunted by absent students and the disturbing figure of the crippled caretaker.
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0Uncomfortably captivating, The Diving Pool includes three short stories that venture into accounts of isolation, envy, sadism, and the vulnerability within an unravelling reality.
This was my first time reading Ogawa’s writing and I was really impacted by the disturbing quality of her matter-of-fact, simple prose. I loved the way this matter-of-factness highlighted the terrifyingly pervasive potential for cruelty from even the most unsuspecting members of society.
I enjoyed each story so much, and it was so chilling to see just how easily these strange little stories developed into accounts of apathetic cruelty and unsettling imagery.
Overall, an eerie, perturbing collection of stories that seamlessly weaves in elements of horror, maladjustment, and most of all, uneasy introspection. It’s hard to explain how impactful this book is—that sinking feeling it leaves with you—but it really is such a remarkable piece of work.
If Ogawa’s other books are as discomforting and beautiful as this, I’m definitely looking forward to more.
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