The Hole, in some senses, is our Hiroko Oyamada tipping point – in that we loved Weasels in the Attic, the first book by her we read, and were a little more ambivalent about The Factory, which we read next. We started The Hole and almost immediately were caught up in its web of uneasy intrigue.
Asa and her husband are moving – his job has asked him to relocate and his parents have offered them a free house neighbouring their own. Asa figures she’ll look for work when she is in the new place (which she can’t remember having seen before, despite having visited the parents on previous occasions).
When she is in place, and her husband is back to leaving the house early and arriving home late, she finds the days her own and is languorously stuck for something to do. She tidies, she cooks a little, she reads a little but my God how long the days are. When her mother in law asks for a favour, she all but leaps at the opportunity.
The favour involves taking an envelope of money to the local 7/11 but along the way, Asa spots a mysterious creature and ends up falling in a hole. All but stuck, it takes the arrival of a neighbour she’d yet to introduce herself to, to help her out. From here, things quietly spiral. She meets her brother-in-law, for example, a person nobody had ever previously mentioned. She becomes somewhat fixated on her husband’s grandpa who likes to water the garden in the rain. She sees the animal again – or does she? Is it the same animal? Or a different animal? What kind of animal is it?
The grandpa goes walkabout in the middle of the night, and Asa follows, only to find the mysterious brother in law doing the same thing. You won’t be too surprised to learn that Asa and her elderly in-law both end up down a hole again. But not the same hole as early. There are a lot of holes in The Hole. Some of which may have been dug by the mysterious beast.
All told, we would say that maybe the first three quarters of The Hole held our interest – as the short novel progressed to its climax (and didn’t really attempt to resolve any of its subtle mysteries) our enthusiasm waned ever so slightly. But the curious thing is – we wouldn’t say that The Hole is a tipping point. We emerge from the book with a continued interest in Hiroko Oyamada. We’d happily read more. She feels like a puzzle we haven’t quite got to the bottom of yet.
Any Cop?: If you liked either Weasels in the Attic or The Factory, you’ll definitely find something here to pique your interest.
Bookmunch 