The Thorn Puller
Book • 2022
Hiromi Ito's The Thorn Puller blends prose and poetry to narrate caregiving, transnational life, and ritual in late-life family dynamics.
Drawing on the Sugamo Togenuki Jizo tradition, the book moves between Japan and the United States as the narrator tends to aging parents and negotiates bicultural identity.
Ito interweaves myth, quoted voices, and surreal moments to probe suffering, memory, and the body.
The work defies strict genre boundaries, echoing medieval sekkyobushi narrative mixes and modern i-novel confessional modes.
Widely read in Japan, it became a bestseller for its candid, playful, and poignant treatment of caregiving and mortality.
Drawing on the Sugamo Togenuki Jizo tradition, the book moves between Japan and the United States as the narrator tends to aging parents and negotiates bicultural identity.
Ito interweaves myth, quoted voices, and surreal moments to probe suffering, memory, and the body.
The work defies strict genre boundaries, echoing medieval sekkyobushi narrative mixes and modern i-novel confessional modes.
Widely read in Japan, it became a bestseller for its candid, playful, and poignant treatment of caregiving and mortality.
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Jeffrey Angles
Hiromi Ito, "The Thorn Puller" (Stone Bridge Press, 2022)
Mentioned by ![undefined]()
Jeffrey Angles
Hiromi Ito, "The Thorn Puller" (Stone Bridge Press, 2022)
Discussed by ![undefined]()
Jeffrey Angles
Hiromi Ito, "The Thorn Puller" (Stone Bridge Press, 2022)
