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Dec 22, 2024 By Frank Valish

Izumi Suzuki is a Japanese author who prior to her writing career of the 1970s and ’80s worked as a model and actress. Her fiction was largely of the science fiction variety (two books of short stories have already been released by Verso Books, the terrific Terminal Boredom and Hit Parade of Tears). Set My Heart on Fire is her first English-translated novel.

Set My Heart on Fire is a tale of a young woman immersed in Tokyo’s 1970s music scene, flitting around with various partners and with general dis-ease of being until she ultimately settles down, gets married and has a child with an abusive musician who then goes crazy and dies. Some of this may echo Suzuki’s own life, as her personal history includes marrying and having a child with jazz musician Kaoru Abe who later died of a drug overdose.

Reading Set My Heart on Fire is often gut-wrenching. Reading it feels like trying to discern Suzuki’s psyche, understand her, and figure out her story through her prose. And one often feels one gets too close. Suzuki committed suicide in 1986, a mere 36 years young. Perhaps like her protagonist in Set My Heart on Fire, by the time you realize what’s good for you, it’s often too late. (www.versobooks.com)

Author rating: 7.5/10