Published in 1923, the loosely connected stories are written in an idiosyncratic style, often presenting surreal situations and characters.
[1] Critic and translator Hiroaki Sato asserts that Taruho's style also resembles Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, and Expressionism, all of which were influential artistic movements of the time.
Celestial bodies appear throughout; shooting stars fall to earth and become everyday objects, and the moon acts as a recurring character known as “Mr.
[4] According to the New York Times, Taruho’s “whimsical sketches are colorful and amusing, a mixture of vaudeville slapstick and primitive cartoon”.
[4] Taruho is believed to have included an explanation for his stories’s fanciful style with the final line of Un Énigme, in which the narrator exclaims: nonsenseisayhasavalue.