The Bridegroom Was a Dog
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Internationally acclaimed author Yoko Tawada's most famous — and bizarre — tale in a stand-alone, New Directions Pearl edition. The Bridegroom Was a Dog is perhaps the Japanese-German writer Yoko Tawada’s most famous story. Its initial publication in 1998 garnered admiration from The New Yorker, who praised it as, “fast-moving, mysteriously compelling tale that has the dream quality of Kafka.” The Bridegroom Was a Dog begins with a schoolteacher telling a fable to her students. In the fable, a princess promises her hand in marriage to a dog that has licked her bottom clean. The story takes an even stranger twist when that very dog appears to the schoolteacher in real life as a dog-like man. They develop a very sexual, romantic courtship with many allegorical overtones — much to the chagrin of her friends.
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Once upon a time there was a little princess who was still too young to wipe herself after she went to the lavatory, and the woman assigned to look after her was too lazy to do it for her, so she used to call the princess's favorite black dog and say, “If you lick her bottom clean, one day she'll be your bride,” and in time the princess herself began looking forward to that day.
“The Bridegroom Was a Dog” by Yoko Tawada is a surreal novella that opens with Mitsuko, a schoolteacher, recounting a bizarre fairy tale to her students. In the story, a princess promises her hand in marriage to a dog that licks her bottom clean. As the lines between her tale and reality blur, Mitsuko encounters a mysterious man with canine qualities, leading to a bizarre affair framed by the townsfolk's gossip. Tawada's narrative seamlessly weaves together elements of folklore, magical realism, and contemporary life, all tinged with dark undertones.
Although he didn't have a job — didn't do anything, really, except take care of the laundry, cooking, and cleaning — he was never bored enough to resort to reading or watching television, and his principal hobby was smelling her body;
Exploring the intersection of fantasy and reality, Tawada delves into the transformative power of storytelling and the fluidity of identity. She challenges the boundaries between human and animal, teacher and student, myth and truth, and loneliness and connection. Through her unique narrative style, Tawada invites readers to question the nature of reality and the roles we play in our own stories, blending a child-like interplay of strangeness and acceptance. Thought-provoking, layered, and freaking weird.
