The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa - 3 Perplex and Beautiful Stories

The Diving Pool contains three perplex and beautiful stories. The first story 'The Diving Pool' is about an orphanage. The main character is ironically the only non-orphan living in the orphanage. Her parents run the orphanage and her father is a minister and carefully writes inspiring messages on the message board outside the church each day. Unfortunately, her parents seem to neglect her somewhat, treating her just like the other orphans they care for. She longs to have a photo album with just her baby pictures instead of the photo album she has with everyone at the orphanage.

The first story reminds me of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye for two reasons. In the Catcher and the Rye, Holden assumes that everyone is depressed and sad, because he feels this way and naively assumes others in the same situation automatically have his same feelings. In The Diving Pool, the main character listens to her mother talk and watches the other orphans nodding and following along with her mother's stories, and assumes everyone is tired of her mother jabbering just like her. She does not think that the other orphans might admire or respect her mother, because she does not, so she assumes everyone else also does not.

She also has an all I want... statement similar to Holder in The Catcher in the Rye. Holden says: 'All I want is to be the catcher in the rye,' referring to a children's game and the fun he remembers from it. The main character in The Diving Pool says 'All I want is to hear Rei's screams and to watch Jun dive.'

Rei is a toddler at the orphanage, and she realizes that bullying Rei is fun. While the bullying is not severe, it does evolve to severe consequences for Rei, and while reading I wanted to reach out and smack her, or shake her and tell her to stop abusing Rei. At first, she hides while babysitting, and Rei screams when she does not see her and thinks she is all alone. Then, another day she places her in a large vase that covers her, and Rei screams because of claustrophobia and the fear of being left there. Later, she gives Rei a pastry that looks good on the outside, but is moldy on the inside. Rei eagerly eats it, but that night is rushed to the hospital. Rei is sick for weeks and has a rash all over her body. She does not feel guilty, instead says 'I would feel guilty if Rei had died.'

Jun is another orphan her age she has known since childhood. Jun is on the diving team, and everyday after school she hides on the bleachers, watching him dive and admiring him. She has a crush on Jun and hopes he does not know she is watching him. When Jun confronts her after school one day, she learns that he is also watching her. He reassures her that she will soon find her own interests and like his own diving, she will soon have an activity to occupy her own time. Jun also tells her that he knows what she did to Rei, and from reading I was comforted that Jun is watching her like a hawk and will make sure she does not continue on the path of abuse to Rei.

The second story, The Pregnancy Diary, is about a girl that writes about her sister's pregnancy. The main character lives with her sister and her sister's husband. The main character has a job and goes to school, and her sister's husband is a dentist, but her sister does not seem to have a life outside of home and going to the doctor. It is revealed that her pregnant sister might have psychological problems. Her sister has morning sickness and refuses to even have any food in the house for the first trimester. Claiming that seeing or smelling other's food makes her nauseous, the main character is forced to eat outside and not bring any food home. At first, the main character wonders if her sister is pregnant at all, because her sister loses a tremendous amount of weight. Later, her sister regains her appetite and wants to eat everything in sight, and the doctors warn that gaining too much weight is dangerous.

The third and final story is about a triple amputee that runs a boarding house. The main character stays at home sewing and sleeping through most of the day while her husband is in Sweden for work. She will soon join him and live in Sweden. She receives an unexpected phone call from her cousin, asking for help in finding a place to stay while he attends school in Tokyo. Her normally boring and lonely life becomes exciting as she helps him buy materials for school. When she brings him to the boarding house she stayed at in college, she is surprised that the place has declined and become a bit rundown and eerie. However, it is a good place for her cousin to stay on his budget. She begins to spend more time with the man that runs the boarding house. He has lost both arms and one leg, and uses a prosthetic leg to walk, and uses his only foot like his hands. His health seems to be declining, and the main character visits him frequently.

The main character does not suspect anything, but from reading I found it scary right away that each time she visited, her cousin was not there. He had called and said he is busy at school, or away at a weekend retreat, the man who ran the boarding house would say. Eventually, she finds that the reason the boarding house is rundown is her cousin is the only one staying there now. The other tenants have left after another college student, a brilliant mathematician, disappeared. Police investigations caused rumors to spread and the other tenants left. Has she brought her cousin to a dangerous place, and has he too vanished because he never is there even though she is now visiting daily?