Les Figues Press

93 pages, $17 paperback

Review by Emily-Jo Hopson

Do some digging, and you will find that Sawako Nakayasu’s first publications included a translation of popular Japanese poet Hiromi Ito’s controversial postnatal piece, ‘Killing Kanoko’. The poem deals with infanticide, and in it, titular baby Kanoko is murdered in a number of ways: most notably, she is covered with biting ants.

Nakayasu’s ants are, for the most part, friendlier. They aid in divorce settlements, quest for greatness, wear shoes (ashamed), are the displaced victims of human interference.

Perhaps I’ve been reading the wrong books, but I’m refreshed to find that the weirdness of The Ants is not founded on horror, but in size-shifting, perspective shrinking and enlarging over the course of 70+ short, almost-vignette snatches of this insect/human world. Where there is horror to be found, it is handled with the same breezy touch as tourist-trap bickerings, as carrot cakes made ant-home. Continue reading →