When bad translations happen to...well, not particularly distinguished books.

[owlectomy]

I didn't particularly like Yoshimoto Banana's "NP," but reading the reviews on Amazon was a little bit strange, as if the reviewers had all read an entirely different book. The Library Journal said that the incestuous couple were step-siblings, when in fact they were half-siblings; most of the reviews made reference to a lesbian relationship when it read to me as an entirely platonic psycho friendship (admittedly, I'm remarkably dense about that sort of thing); and one of the reviews said the book was about religion, and it just wasn't. So I happened upon the translation in Barnes & Noble today.

In the first two pages, I found one outright grammatical mistake and one thing that was just plain wrong, in addition to the overblown, melodramatic prose and the things that read as a little wonky. (Hint: "Perhaps that was an indication of the talent that flowed in their veins, something that neither youth nor idle pleasures could suppress" does not normally belong within two pages of "It was really weird.") I'm not talking about a non-literal or free translation, here, but one that's...wrong.

I'm not bitter, mind you, because I could've done better.

I'm bitter because, if this is typical--mind you, I don't think it is, but I think it's commoner than it ought to be--I have way too many languages to learn.