Book Description

Customer Reviews (7)

Needed it for a class...
The longest stories ever...But they were alright, I found them more interesting to talk about than to actually read...

seminal!!
I adore this book...I read it all at once, woke up my parents in the middle of the night talking about its descriptions of the sky, talked about it at my college interviews, which were about three years ago...Loved it.But Discovered that some of Oe's other work isn't as good.But wow!The language, plot, the strangeness, the beauty, inventiveness, and reach of the book is tremendous.:)

One of the best writers from Japan
If you haven't bought this book, then you should get it now. Kenzaburo Oe is one of the few left wing writers in Japan who has made a great impact world wide. His style is original, his themes often poignant. His own personal suffering and the suffering of his own brain-damaged child often feature in his novels in subtle and not so subtle forms. You will not find any cliches in this novel and Oe is never nauseatingly sentimental. A true gem.

not about mental health
Please do not be misled by the title or Amazon's classification of this work in "Psychology and Counseling."Oe writes about madness not from the perspective of a clinician but from that of an artist.The madness he urges us to leave behind is that of societal expectations.

Although "Prize Catch" might be difficult for those who have experienced racism to read, one has to remember that Oe recaptures (pardon the pun) the atmosphere of rural Shikoku seen through the eyes of a boy in the waning days of World War II.I suspect that the villagers would have had equal difficulty relating to a Caucasian American.

This is an excellent introduction to Oe's public and private lives.

madness outgrown?
this book (i must say) is one of the most original and "a-joy-to-read" works of literature i've picked up recently.

i liked the obscure nature of the stories and the eccentricity of oe'scharacters.

for the most part they all seem to be in some way influencedby his own experiences as a child disillusioned by the war.

the firststory is perhaps my favorite.

i liked the way that the narrator insistedthat he was a person not to be pitied and that his cancer was justified andperhaps even the result of his insanity he witnessed through hisfather.

second: 'teach us to outgrow our madness.'

i found this storyto contain the most interesting relationship that i've had the pleasure ofreading about.

'eeyore! the pork noodles in broth and pepsi cola weregood!'

ahh.

i'll be quoting that for years.

it wasn't only an awkwardrelationship that the father and son shared but rather an affirmation ofthe amount of absurdity inherent with any interpersonal relationship.

allin all i'd say that this is definitely one of my favorite books.

i'llprobably give it another read some day.

yup. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (17)

Monsters
The bizaare, dark, and somewhat tragic tale of a group of delinquent boys taken to a secluded mountain village during World War II, then abandoned by the villagers when a mysterious plague strikes...
I found the relationship between the narrator and his younger brother very moving.In some ways, I was reminded of Golding's Lord of the Flies, however, this novel had more positive moments shared between the boys.Very immersing, I read it in one day.

Powerful
I have a friend once suffered from pneumonia. She read this book in the hospital when she had broken one of her ribs from a coughing fit. That is how pained and weak she was at that time. After she read the book she said she forgot her own anguish and cried for the suffering characters in this touching and tender book. I picked it up and have never been the same again. It made me angry, sad, and I wanted to do something about the injustice in this world. It made me a better person.

A punch in the stomach...
That's what my wife told me when I picked it up to begin reading it.But that's what a good book is supposed to feel like.And it did.It was dark, cruel, and painful,, and contained vivid descriptions of inhumanity, though it was not without its moments of humor.

A.B.C.D. Encirclement
Oe lachrymosely indulges every anti-Japanese propagandist in the american media conglomerate (Ingram) with ample opportunity to smack their lips over the "moral failings" of Japan. The fact that this ineffectual moralist won the Noble prize while it was denied to Mishima speaks volumes on what supine expectations the american propaganda industry expects from Japan. Both left and right. Writer like Oe and Murakami... are parasites getting fat by preening all the morbid phobias of a degenerate american elite, allowing them to wallow in self-adulation. What would Mr. Oe have done during the war? Sheepishly meet the demands of an expansionist american navy? Allowed China to invade the country so as not to offend their sensitivities?...Japan chose WAR rightfully, even with the foreknowledge that it was a lost cause. And Japan would not even exist today if Mr. Oe were around then.

Instead of Oe or Murakami or Bannana Yoshimoto'sinsipid writing for privileged sectors in the american market (The Nanny Diaries) feeding that markets endless appetite for peeling scabs and self-abasement try and find a video of the Shunya Ito film Pride, which angered ALL the right people in the world and was one of the most popular films in recent Japanese cinema. Or any of the great Yukio Mishima's books, who was indeed what he described himself to be "the conscience of post war Japan".

Dark, beautiful, tragic.
My introduction to Kenzaburo Oe, "Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids" struck me with the force of a bamboo spear. With his beautiful prose (and the complementary translation by Mackintosh and Sugiyama), Oe paints his characters with the brush of traditional Japan but in the style of a contemporary miscreant. Throughout, the book conveys relentlessly brutal portraits of an altered, horrific reality.

From the moment the reformatory boys are introduced to the end of their abandonment and the narrator's final, fearful sentences, Oe drags the reader through the hell of his ambiguous setting. Pulled along with the narrator, his brother, and their reform school compatriots, the reader follows into the nightmare of a plague-infested village and their utter isolation. While the boys struggle to eke out their existence and build lives in their newfound freedom, one is constantly on edge awaiting the collapse of their delicate system. When, finally, the villagers return and the madness of the world indeed crushes their fragile independence, the reader emulates the boys in their sense of relief and subsequent betrayal.

One of Oe's first novels, the deft manipulation of the reader's emotions and interactions between the characters promised great things for the young writer. As I begin another of his books, I cannot help but agree that he deserved his Nobel. ... Read more

Book Description
The Silent Cry traces the uneasy relationship between two brothers who return to their ancestral home, a village in densely forested western Japan. While one brother tries to sort out the after-effects of a friend's suicide and the birth of a retarded son, the other embarks on a quixotic
mission to incite an uprising among the local youth. Oe's description of this brother's messianic struggle to save a disintegrating local culture and economy from the depredations of a Korean wheeler-dealer called "The Emperor of the Supermarkets" is as chillingly pertinent today as it was when
first published in 1967. Powerful and daring, The Silent Cry is a thoroughly compelling classic of world literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

its all about mirrors
this is the first novel i read by kenzaburo oe. and its simply superb. the post war its brilliantly portraid in this book. when a couple of brothers return to their hometown, each one has some experiences that changes his vision of the world. but theres another aspect that i loved in it. there was a revolution a century ago, directed by their grandgrandfather. slowly, they go discovering more about this, and finally they mirror the characters and the revolution. its a success repeating itself. the time is a circle. Oe proves it brilliantly here. Its a bit hard to read, but its worth it. DO IT!

The Great Post-War Japanese Novel?
Many critics believe The Silent Cry (not it's translated title: which would be Footbal in the First Year of Mannen) is the great post-war Japanese novel, ranking above even Mishima's The Sea of Fertility tetraology.

If there's one thing that should be mentioned first about this novel, is that it achieves for Japan exactly what Voss does for Australia, and what The Tin Drum achieves for Germany . Like all of these, an epic landscape is evoked to explore the major issues, profoudnly yet simply handled. It also has the markings of a masterpiece, in that it reads like both a summary and yet at the same time an advancement on all that the author has said to date, on a canvas of a biblical size (a definition that, in my opinion, ought to extend the franchise to other masterpieces: Faulkner's Absalom! Absalom! or David Storey's Saville, for instance). This explores every facet of post-atomic, post-imperial Japan's inner life - all the more remarkable for being able to slice through the all-pervasive level of regimentation. It's also a wry commentary on the 'Emperor system' of thought that was so prevalent at the time, and led to the ritualistic suicide of Oe's friend, Yukio Mishima.

A difficultbut brilliantly written novel
Oe in " The silent cry" deals with the perplexing problem of finding ones root. The novel is a story of about two brothers who return to their village, each for their own reasons.

The story deals with by the main characters search for answer to ýhow does a modern man communicate( in philosophical sense )?ýOne brother thinks, we can communicate by death and in our silence. The other wants to communicate by connecting his present with the past of thesociety.

It is a difficult novel due to the hard subject matter. But Oe does SPLENDID job in expounding the difficult issues through his excellent narrative.

a moribund, melodramatic piece of Japanese weirdness...
Despite all the glowing comments in previous amazon.com reviews I must confess that I really don't see how The Silent Cry can be judged as anything other than a strange (read: unbelievable, contrived), totally depressing piece of (otherwise well-written) literature.It compares poorly to some of Yukio Mishima's and Haruki Murakami's better works.Having lived in Japan for years I shudder to think what sort of image it projects about post-war Japanese youth.

The story is a bit complex.Generally it portrays the lives of dysfunctional brothers returning to their ancient country estate, and somehow making parallels between their lives and those of their great-grandfather and his brother during the time of the Meiji restoration (1860s).Some of the insights are interesting, but sadly these are buried in what can be described as a mess.The modern day (actually, circa 1960) brothers and the friends and family have an impossibly depressing, unfortunate lives.The wife is an alcoholic, children/siblings/friends commit suicide and/or suffer from horrible physical/mental anomalies.In this 300 page book no one, and I mean *no one*, so much as smiles.So you think the Japanese people are a nature-loving, inherently serene people?If so I suggest you do NOT read this book!

Having said all this, the story does pick up some pace towards the end (..after an extremely tedious first half).And generally speaking the author, and the translator, have produced nice prose.A shame it is all wasted on a strange story with neurotic (and uninteresting) characters.

Bottom line: time would be better spent on reading some better examples of modern Japanese literature.Best give The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Murakami) a try and forget The Silent Cry.

Weird and wonderful surreal tragi-comedy
It has been said by some that to know a country is to read its novels; far better than to read its (manufactured) history. Novels too are manufactured but novels are more likely to expose the emotional and spiritual "truth" of the country concerned. In THE SILENT CRY the writer OE covers much historical, emotional, social, Japanese ground but does it in such a way as to make it a wonderfully entertaining journey for the reader. I for one would love to read a Freudian criticism of it. For example, a recurring motif is suicide, in various forms, one being hanging and that image is conveyed by a the anti-hero's best friend who removed all his clothes, painted his head red, shoved a cucumber up his arse and then hanged himself; another being the anti-hero's brother who shot himself in the head the remains of which reminded the brother of a pomegranate. Such vivid imagery recurs throughout this novel. Another distinguishing feature of it is its lack of cliches, its almost poetic prose, poetic in the sense of dense. You daren't skip a phrase let alone a line. It is a rich read. Historically, the novel covers the transition from an agrarian village life to the impact of the supermarket, racism, the vulnerability of the Japanese economy (this written in 1966- in 2001 have the Japanese finally faced up to real economic reform?)foreigners, and on the cover, an artistic representation of the Hiroshima ground zero. The one-eyed hero is self-effacing and has an alcoholic wife, retarded son and is a cuckold. His brother is vain, hostile, proud, an adulterer who has sex with his retarded sister. It is true that it is reminiscent of the Cain and Abel story or the Brothers Karamazov and I think it deserves mention in that mythical company. Its themes that resonate with me most tellingly are the need for one and one's country to come to terms with the truth about the past. The anti-hero Mitsu is on a search for the "truth" throughout the novel.As an individual I need to come to terms with my mother's suicide as well as other aspects of my personal history. As an Australian, my nation needs to come to terms with its past and our genocidal attitude to Aboriginal Australians. The second theme for me is that constant internal worrying and guilt can be self-defeating - at the close of the novel Mitsu feels "throughout the time remaining to me..a hundred pairs of eyes (of his cat, of his great grandfather, brother, wife) would glitter like a chain of stars in the night of my experience. And I would live on, suffering agonies of shame under the light of those stars, peering out timidly like a rat, with my single eye, at a dim and equivocal outer world..."(p.269) Yet, at the urging of his now pregnant wife, he chooses to accept a job in Africa instead of a job at a University, symbolic I would guess of his need to accept the past come to terms with it and get on with living, for some sort of peace. Survival becomes the key to that peace. Its weird at the end too because despite all the preceding horrors, the novel's ending creates in the reader a wry grin or satisfying chuckle as the anti-hero realises with his new job he may be able to achieve an important personal goal - building a thatched hut.A memorable read. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Friction between the Public and Private Self
Seventeen and the two halves of J are three variations on a similar theme.In these stories, the protagonists are confronted with the realization that their private and public selves are irreconcilably different, and it is this schism that leads to the characters' self-destruction.

In Seventeen (4.5 stars), Oe masterfully portrays the story's anti-hero, a seventeen year old boy who awakens to many fears--death, status as outsider/outcast by family and peers, his own insecurity--as well as the antidote to these fears: masturbation (Oe's use of a Japanese euphemism that means "self-defilement" is telling of the protagonist's sadistic streak).In fact, the protagonist longingly states that it would be nice if life was just one long orgasm.By a few twists of fate, it is right-wing extremism that he chooses as his "suit of armor" to cover his vulnerable ego, and it is the emperor he chooses as the object of his quest for the lifelong orgasm.

Oe's choice of a seventeen year old protagonist is not coincidental.This story is patterned after the murder of a left-wing politician by a seventeen year old youth.Not surprisingly, Oe's interpretation of events enflamed a passionate response from Japan's ultranationalist right who were outraged by Oe's connection between right-wing activism and the masturbation of a lonely, frightened boy.

Again in J (4 stars), Oe uses sex as the vehicle for his message about the strain between acting on one's true impulses and desires and conforming to social norms and expectations.The contrast is illustrated immediately as the Tokyo-ites observe the silent, condemning crowd outside of the house of an adulterer.The scene is repeated later at J's cottage after the "free love" goings on of the young socialites is witnessed by a young boy from the village.The villagers retreat, but the damage is done.The socialites are overcome with a feeling of defilement and emptiness, crushed as a result of not meeting the expectations of a disapproving society.

The second half focuses on the struggle between expression and conformity in the odd "pervert's club" of J, an old man, and a youth.At different stages, they realize that there is no compromise--they must either give in to their true nature or commit entirely to conforming to society.In the end, they all reject society and meet inglorious ends.

In Seventeen and J, Oe uses rather extreme situations to highlight the difficulty or even impossibility of reconciling personal expression and social expectations.Both the vehicle and the content of Oe's message are oddly gripping and memorable.These stories will not be enjoyed by all readers, but I think they will reward those who keep an open mind and search for the meaning that Oe instills in his works.

Politics and Sex
_Seventeen & J_ was one of the many books resting and collecting dust that I bought on a whim and reall had little intention of reading soon. I have read two other Oe novels before these two short novels, _Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids_ and _A Personal Matter_ and his reknowned short story "The Catch," but while I did enjoy these works I was caught up in the recent literature of two of my favorite writers: Murakami Haruki and Yoshimoto Banana, and withing their numerous pages concerning sheepmen and girls who love to sleep in the kitchen, I was kind of bored when I entered Oe's more mundane world.

However, after a couple of years and haing read many of the works of Natsume Soseki, Tanizaki Junichiro, Mishima Yukio, and Kawabata Yasunari, I decided to try another Oe novel. After all the man did win the Nobel Prize for literature, and that must mean something, hehe.

I am glad that I did read these short novels, because they give the reader a view of the tumultuous early 60s in Japan.

_Seventeen_ stars a a young high school student who has just turned seventeen years old. While he is in the bathroom, he feels on top of the world and that with a little effort he will be able to accomplish anything. However, after he leaves the restroom, his high hopes fall back to earth and he gets into a poltical argument with his sister. He supporting the left, communists, and she supporting the right, basically nationalists. The sister wins the argument and succeeds in reducing her brother to tears. However, he pays her back with a swift kick to the eye. One can almost tell that "Seventeen" wants someone to say something to him, but the onl thing that happens is that his father says his sister won't help pay his college tuition.

The next day is even worse. The boy fails several important tests, but worse of all he wets himself while running 800 meters. Later a friend takes Seventeen to a rightest political rally, which the young high schooler becomes entranced by. He soon joins the rightest group, and even though he spouts all of the correct rightest slogans, one can tell he is only doing so because he feels that he finally belongs to a group of people.

The hero of _J_ is quite different than Seventeen. He is the 29 year old son of the president of a steel company and has money coming out of the yin yang. He also has a group of artists, a poet, an actor, a jazz singer, a camera man, a sculpter, his younger sister, a poet, and a film maker, his wife, at his beck and call. The novel starts out with J and his friend getting drunk in his jaguar as they head to his father's country houe to film a movie directed by his wife. They enjoy their time there, well mot of them at least, drinking, having sex, and telling dirty stories. However, things go wrong when they catch a little boy inside the cabin who escapes by crashing through a window. Everything works out fine in the end, but not before some very harsh words are spoken among the friends. Their close personal web of friendship, thought to be quite strong, was, in fact, quite weak.

The second part of the _J_ novel, finds J teamed up with a 60 year old man. They are both chikans, men who find sexual arousal through rubbing themselves on young girls on crowded trains, buses, subways, etc. However, they are quite cautious when they do it, that is why they are quite moved by a young man who performs chikan almost completely out in the open to gain experience so he can write a grand poem about sexual perversity.

Both novels are quite good. _Seventeen_ seems a bit stunted, but that is because the second half was not translated. The second part has never even been reprinted in Japanese because its original publication brought Oe much criticism from the left and the right. So, in all honesty, to protect his life, the story was never reprinted or translated.

A great book that gives to reader a raw view of the extremist in Japan during the early years of the sixties.

The Solemn Tightrope Walkers
This is quintessential Oe.

If we fail to see ourselves reflected in society often we become outcasts or are labeled as deviant.The images of Seventeen and J are not reflexive.Therefore, by acts of violence and sexual molestation, they superimpose their images on a world which refusesto see.

With Seventeen and J, Oedepicts the transmution of post-warJapan.This is cleverly evidenced by J's truncated name and the attitudeof Seventeen's father.While the political aspect of Japan is moreapparent in Seventeen, the politics in J are presented in a more abstractlevel.

They have each architected an inner world populated with theshadows of despair, doubt, and disgust. Oe lets us become voyeurs of theprivate and sometimes painful world of these two young men who areself-described "others".

Seventeen and J are both "Solemn TightropeWalkers".Yet, what they are trying to balance is their existence in aworld which they despisewith a raison detre.This is demonstrated bySeventeen's fanatical involvement with a right-wing political group and J'sflirtation with being a "chaikan".

These two novels should be read byanyone who gives a damn or have stopped.

Two Novels: J and Seventeen.
Oe Kenzaburop is a genius.I gave a copy of this book to two people-once three or four years ago to my high school English teacher, and once again this year to a fellow college student at Binghamton University.

The firstperson liked Seventeen better.He thought the masturbation scene inSeventeen was masterful.I thought so too.The scene is supposedly thefirst masturbation scene in a Japanese novel, and it was enthrallinglydetailed.Seventeen was a good depiction of a boy coming of age, and hisconfused entry into the world of Japanese politics.The second person towhom I gave the book, loved the part in which the protogonist of Seventeenkicks his sister in the face, breaking her glasses.

As the first personto whom I gave the book liked Seventeen better than J, the second person towhom I gave the book liked J better than Seventeen.I too liked J better. J was a more vivid depiction of Japan and its contemporary personage's.Jis written in two parts.The first part of the book takes place in thecountry, it presents J as a person confused about sex and his ownsexuality, and at some point he even comes across as homosexual.Thesecond part shows him in the city.He no longer contents himself with theanswers life grants him, he decides to go out into the world and chancefinding the sexual answers he desires by taking action.He becomes a"chikan," a sexual predator, who rides trains looking for hisnext victim (he exposes his naked parts to innocent train passengers,usually young school girls heading to school or returning home).Ridingthe trains he meets two persons with whom he will develop a great bond. This novel introduces some of the most memorable characters in fiction.Inthe world of Japanese literature Oe Kenzaburo ranks with Saikaku Ihara,Yasunari Kawabata, and Mishima Yukio.

J is about sex, it is about thepain of being a sadist-the suffering a sadist has to go through because heis miss understood.Reading this book, and seeing the unfairness in it, isenough to make a person question the way we view people, and society forthat matter.

This book is essential for anyone who's interested in sex,or is just a straight out pervert.The first person to whom I gave thebook was an erudite, whom I felt needed to read the book to be furtherlearnt in literature.The second person was one who wanted me to suggestsome books for him to read, for he wanted to be well-read.I felt thisbook was essential for such a goal. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Writing a novel after having won a Nobel Prize for Literature must be even more daunting than trying to follow a brilliant, bestselling debut.In Somersault (the title refers to an abrupt, public renunciation of the past), Kenzaburo Oe has himself leapt in a new direction, rolling away from the slim, semi-autobiographical novel that garnered the 1994 Nobel Prize (A Personal Matter) and toward this lengthy, involved account of a Japanese religious movement.Although it opens with the perky and almost picaresque accidental deflowering of a young ballerina with an architectural model, Somersault is no laugh riot.Oe's slow, deliberate pace sets the tone for an unusual exploration of faith, spiritual searching, group dynamics, and exploitation.His lavish, sometimes indiscriminate use of detail can be maddening, but it also lends itself to his sobering subject matter, as well as to some of the most beautiful, realistic sex scenes a reader is likely to encounter.--Regina Marler Book Description

Customer Reviews (7)

Beautiful
This book is beautiful. It's not fast-pased; it's not thrilling; it's not edge-of-your-seat exciting. But it is beautiful. The writing is poetic and I found myself, as a writer, inspired and transfixed by the prose.

Oe is disappointing on his musing about religion
A Personal Matter continues to be a favorite of this avid reader.Oe
decided to try something new and it just doesn't work.In exploring
values, beliefs he almost drills in some pretty boring characters.I
never put down a book partly read but this one was tempting.
Gad, a grind...Oe's strength is his play on words, come back master!

slow start, slower ending
I picked up this book because I am interested in Japanese culture and figure a Nobel Prize winning author writing a novel about a religious movement in modern day Japan would be right up my alley.
After about 250 pages I kept telling myself "something will actually happen soon."Unfortunately nothing did.You could argue that the ending is climactic, but I argue that by the 400th page or so the reader will be so bored and in such a hurry to just finish this monstrosity that the ending will be of little interest and even less impact.

Faith and Rebirth
"Somersault" by Kenzoburo Oe is an unusual novel for my own reading habits, though one that has a lot of appeal. Being interested in religion and spirituality, I was curious to see what he had to offer and say.

The novel follows a few characters, but they are all quickly joined together in the midst of the beginning of the Church of the New Man. Patron, the church's founder and leader, spent 10 years alone with his religious partner Guide, after they had done a "Somersault" and had claimed their old movement was all a big joke. The rise of a radical faction within that old movement prompted this dramatic event. It is the regathering of old followers and new that occupies much of the narrative of the book.

The book is filled with long dialogues and monologues, as characters' struggles and understandings of the Somersault, themselves, Patron, faith and God are all covered in this way. This means that monologues can run for a couple of pages as characters relate their pasts, their hopes, or Patron deals with his view of events.

It has been commented that the book lacks detail with the teaching of the movements. While the detail is rather sparse, there is enough content given to form some understanding of the main points of the church's doctrine and teaching. This develops through the book, a good example being the nature of Patron. The theme of repentance, renunciation of the world, trust in Patron, visions, prayer and so on are all there. The use of Biblical texts and some others are also there. For some more theologically minded readers, maybe more detail would have been nice, but the book certainly does not suffer for the lack of it.

Oe has dealt with a lot of different themes, and different ones will stand out to different people. Perhaps one that stuck with me was the nature of faith, and how it develops with various events and under differing external stimuli. Patrons 10 years of isolation were interpretted by the Quiet Women and others as his descent into hell, something Patron himself took up. The understanding of Patron's as somehow sacred also comes into view among different followers and their discussions.

Permeating the entire story is the Somersault like some shadow, and different groups' responses to it and the new movement come in for some heavy discussion among the various characters. The Technicians, the Quiet Women, Patron, Dancer, Ikuo, Kizu and others all have their own take on it.

I enjoyed the book thoroughly, and had a great time reading it. It is a thought provoking look into a religious movement that could be termed a cult, and the way in which people understand and develop their faith according to different events. Oe keeps things moving relatively well, and does not get bogged down in useless detail.

The characterisations are remarkably detailed, I found. They all had very distinctive personalities and idiosyncracies, which made them all the more life-like.

For something a bit different, "Somersault" is a fine read and a good story. Enjoyable to the last, I have to say that I recommend it to any who enjoy the themes that it deals with.

a novel about groups, forbearance, and religious yearning

I just finished reading Somersault. Several interesting themes emerge.

First, on a sociological level, it seems that Oe is fascinated, even obsessed, by groups. Almost all of the characters belong to a group: the Quiet Women, the Technicians, the office staff, the Fireflies. Even the quasi-individualistic Kizu is first and foremost generically "a professor." Characters in this novel are always strongly identified with the group to which they belong. Strong individuals such as Gii emerge as leaders of a group. Is this emphasis on groups a Japanese thing, or is it uniquely Oe?

Keeping in the sociological theme, I think Oe paints Japanese society as chock full of forbearance. All the characters tolerated each other and tried to understand why all of the other characters did what they did. They all helped each other and were thoughtful to each other's needs. Nobody was mean-spirited. Even the strong-willed characters Gii and Ikuo were, at heart, incredibly nice people. Dancer was very polite throughout. Kizu was a kindly old professor. Ogi, the Innocent Youth, is the archetype example of niceness. Even the folks who tortured Guide were quickly forgiven. Is this emphasis on polite behavior, too, a Japaneseor an Oe-centric thing?

On the deeper, religious level I think it was always Oe's intent to leave the religious message from Patron deliberately ambiguous. In fact, the ambiguity of spiritualism is the take-home message of the novel.

How is this manifested in the book? Well, the vast majority of the principal players: Ogi, Dancer, Kizu, Gii, Guide himself, have no real religious conviction and are just drawn into Patron's inner circle via his cult of personality or (in the cases of Gii and Kizu) for ulterior reasons. Patron himself found his own mystical experiences incredibly ambiguous. Ikuo, a truly religious and earnest man, was not able to properly define his relationship with God, either, and this caused him tremendous stress.

The last page of the novel reveals Oe's core belief, but I don't want to give the game away. Let's just say that, if you believe in a traditional God, you might find yourself shaken to the core.

There is an exciting conclusion if you can muster up the patience to get there. There is a dramatic exchange in which Patron and Ikuo do the father-son thing, and another interesting scene where 25 women go potty together. But you have to perservere to the mid page-500's before you get those rewards.

The relation between Kizu and Ikuo is well-developed. I love the way Oe left the role of Dancer in this relationship ambiguous until the end. The relationship between Gii and Ikuo is also fascinating, and at the end, Oe foreshadows that some very turbulent times are still to come between these two strong-willed characters.

The book is as much an existential philosophical treatise as it is a novel. It also offers an important sociological perspective on modern-day Japan.



... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

Both for laughs and cries
This book is a perfect example of how good writing conquers all.It ultimately doesn't matter whether the subject is gruesome, the main character completely despicable, the culture foreign or how dated the material is (people say things like "groovy").How much of the beguiling effect is owed to the translation I don't know, but I assume that it is based on an outstanding original.

What to make of a young man whose wife has just delivered their first baby (while he was having a showdown with a street gang) and who responds to his son's physically appalling abnormality by going on a rampage of alcohol and sex, eagerly awaiting news of the baby's death?Nothing simple for sure.Oe not only makes it understandable that shame, fear and sadness can lead to seemingly incomprehensible actions--for those to whom the matter is not personal.He instills into Bird, the protagonist, a soul that the reader willingly follows him search.Bird's aimlessness, his dreaming of Africa, his reluctance to commit, are all not unusual for a 27-year old, and it may just be the extent of his tragedy that makes his wrestling with responsibility seem more crass than others.Throughout Bird's outrageously selfish few days of dealing with his own post-partum issues (and an emerging history of less than glorious encounters with morality), Oe supplies him with such ingenious self-irony that he ends up almost endearing.

Infusing a difficult premise like this one with humor is no easy feat, nor is the marvelous suspension of the plot, but that is why Oe's praise, up to the Nobel Prize, is so well deserved.Like Bird's inner world, the novel revolves around him, but does not operate in a vacuum.Although Japan in the early sixties places the action into a firm context, global upheavals of the old order (the women's lib movement, political unrest in academia, the Cuban missile crisis) give it universal appeal. Highly recommendable.

Seriously flawed
Bird, a teacher at a Japanese cram school, is shocked to learn that his new-born son suffers from a brain hernia.He is expected to die soon and will suffer from brain damage even if he survives.Bird, whose first impulse is to find a way to escape this predicament rather than deal with it, struggles to understand what he should do.

Oe Kenzaburo, who faced this situation in his own life, is at his best relating the surreal situation that Bird finds himself in as he confronts the impersonal hospital system with its uninvolved doctors.Other aspects of the novel are far less successful.Bird is presented as such a shlub that it is difficult to understand the devotion of his mistress Himiko, who alternately plays both mother (by providing him with unconditional sympathy and a shoulder to cry on) and mistress (by providing sex and the possibility of escape from his stifling daily routine).Neither Bird the character nor Oe the author seem very concerned about the wife and mother of the deformed baby in all this, as she is barely mentioned in the story, which makes Himiko seem like a pathetic bit of wish fulfillment who gives and gives without making any demands in return.Her dippy philosophical speeches don't help, either.

I was also puzzled by the abrupt change in tone at the book's conclusion.For most of its length, this is a very dark book, and its sunny resolution is both unconvincing and puzzling coming from a culture that often seems to have more affinity with sad endings than happy ones.

"Bird, Fly": Oe's superb complement to Updike's classic
Oe's masterpiece unites personal experience with literary inspiration in the most extraordinary way. The most immediate source for the novel is Oe's own personal experience, the birth of a son with brain damage, a seeming misfortune that ultimately became a source of considerable happiness. In the novel, Bird's failing marriage is exacerbated by such a birth, which causes him to wish for his newborn's death (and to even attempt subversively lethal measures) and to fly to the arms of another woman while his seriously ill wife is recovering in the hospital. His efforts to escape his self-absorbed misery founders: "The baby continued to live, and it was oppressing Bird, even beginning to attack him."

Throughout, the novel recalls an extraordinary number of literary antecedents. I can only speak to the American influences, but "A Personal Matter" most obviously--and intentionally--resembles "Rabbit, Run" (which I happened to have read only weeks before). There are the surface resemblances (Rabbit = Bird); the plot parallels (each man escapes his familial duties by fleeing to the arms of a "sexual adventuress who had broken out of conventional orbit"); the thematic similarities (the lure of freedom versus the manacles of responsibility).

In fact, Oe was an avid and thorough reader of American fiction, from Mark Twain to Saul Bellow. (His American translator John Nathan met Oe shortly after "A Personal Matter" was published and "tried to confront him with things he didn't know": specifically, "Rabbit, Run." Oe, who was already quite familiar with the novel, in turn introduced Nathan to Updike's poems on basketball.) The many literary echoes enhance the work largely because Oe transforms Updike's cynicism into his own message of "hope." For all their similarities, the two novels are assertively different--in tone, in style, in their characters--and, together, they bookend the conflicting themes of expectation and disillusionment so prevalent in twentieth-century literature.

What it takes to be a man
The fondest dream of Bird, the nickname of this novel's protagonist, is to travel to Africa, then write his memoirs upon returning home to Japan.This proposed trip is in actuality just another step in Bird's life long pattern (at the age of 27) of running away from responsibility.Bird's problem at the present time is that his wife has just given birth to a boy with a herniated brain.There appears to be little hope that his son will survive this terrible defect.Should Bird put the boy through an operation, only to die or at the most exist as a human vegetable?Bird eagerly awaits a telephone call from the hospital, while visiting his mistress, Himiko, telling Bird that "the monster" has died.Not a particularly a nurturing father's response, but it would set Bird free.He even considers strangling his son to death.Additionally, Bird treats his suffering wife with disdain and neglect.Also, Bird's extreme passivity is obvious when he fails to protest when he is summarily discharged from his teacher's job.

Kenzaburo Oe is an extraordinarily gifted writer with a rare ability to get inside a person's heart and soul.With keen powers of empathy and perception, Oe sensitively describes the pain, anxiety, anger and bewilderment of Bird as well as some of the other fathers at the hospital who also had children born with serious birth defects.

By the book's end, Bird discovers a measure of responsibility in himself and gets on with his life in a mature manner.Finding the courage to be an adult--rather than always escaping from it--finally becomes a personal matter to Bird.

Interesting, very.
My initial thought after having finished this book was "interesting." It's a good book that gives you an idea of the current social dilemmas Japanese society faces today. Bird is afraid to speak and assume the role as a father as he tries to figure out how he should deal with his new born son who he only sees as a social stigma. The book follows him through is personal ordeal. ... Read more

Amazon.com
In An Echo of Heaven, Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburo Oe tells the riveting story of Marie Kuraki, a seductive, perverse intellectual whose two young sons, one retarded and one crippled, commit suicide. Thus begins Marie's intellectual, spiritual, and sexual journey to find meaning in this horrific tragedy. Oe, who draws a provocative but sympathetic portrait of Marie, supplements his narrative with old letters and journal entries from those whose lives she influenced.

Oe's prose (as translated by Margaret Mitsutani) is cold and precise, perhaps to maintain emotional distance since Oe himself has a mentally handicapped son. The description of Marie's quest also affords him the opportunity to engage in profound reflections on faith, sin, death, sexuality, heaven, and hell. --Madeline Crowley Book Description
A group of Mexicans sit in the desert, gazing up at the image of their new saint--a seductive woman with a smile like Betty Boop's--projected onto an outdoor screen. The woman is Marie Kuraki, recruited to act the part of a "sorrowing mother," to help unite the workers on a cooperative farm in a remote village in Mexico.

By becoming a "saint," Marie, an unbeliever in search of spiritual peace, reaches the end of a long journey induced by a series of personal tragedies: above all, by the death of her two sons, which happened when one of them was pushing his brother in a wheelchair along a path above a cliff by the sea.

To rebuild her life, Marie leaves her home in Japan to go to a commune in California, under the shy guidance of a guru called Little Father; then on to Mexico, where she falls briefly under the spell of the Dark Virgin of Guadalupe; and finally to a mountain village in the shadow of an Aztec pyramid. There she offers what's left of her life to the local people, who come to venerate her, though her own faith remains as enigmatic as before.

An Echo of Heaven presents an astonishingly fresh and penetrating portrait of a woman of independent character and strong physical appetites, looking for a way to understand the mystery of her life. It is a work by a Nobel Prize-winning writer at the height of his powers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Dull, dull, dull
I ussually finish a book I start, and this book was no exception.I think the reason I decided to read it is because its author won the Nobel Prize in 1994, and one should read something by such winnners--tho there are many I have not, yet, read anything by.This book tells of atragedy which Marie suffers and how she is devastated by it.It also tells of her promiscuous sex life, and of her flitting from one interest to another, but I could not care about her and while the translation is eminently readable I kept thinking "why should I care about this woman?"I never found an answer.I cannot recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an interesting experience.So why did I write this?Since there are only two reviews I thought one should get another viewpoint on the book.

Echo of Heaven
Kenzaburo Oe is one of the best writers I have ever read.In Echo of Heaven, we see some of Oe himself in his dealings with Marie Kuraki.Marie's experiences are unimaginable, and yet she somehow continues on inlife. Oe's true brilliance comes out in his most recent work.I found thatthe more I read about Marie and her life, the more anxious I would becomeand want to continue reading. I was totally mystified with Kenzaburo'swords, and most importantly,in his description of his dreams of Marie. Oehumored me in the way he views Marie with her Betty Boop lips.Hisdescriptions are unforgettable.Though Marie eventually lives out her lifeas a saint we feel her pain throughout her life.What is important is theimpact that Oe produces when describing Marie's experience.I recommendthis book to anyone who enjoys modern literature.

A story about a woman's loss and how (& why) she lives on.
The author writes about a woman named Marie Kuraki.Marie suffers the worst kind of losses imaginable.Yet, she never gives up on life.She is devoted and relentless in the pursuit of her beliefs -- a modern day saint.Despite her reputation for selflessness, she refuses to succomb to her image as a saint and steadfastly presents herself as a woman -- a human being at all times.Oe presents her story in a detailed, loving, and non-glorifying manner.
It's a great read, but brace yourself, Marie's losses are devastating. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

A.B.C.D. Encirclement
Sure to please american expectations as to what the contemporary Japanese are like. But its just propaganda written to order for a foreign market and its diseased media. A vulgar soapbox sermon. Elitist and condescending. In fact the commemoration of the BOMBING of Pearl Harbor was a very festive occasion. Deal with it.

Lessons from suffering
Hiroshima Notes is a collection of seven essays written between August 1963 and January 1965 on the occasion of several visits by Mr. Oe to Hiroshima. The year 1963 was a watershed for Kenzaburo Oe. In 1963, his son was born with a lesion of the skull through which brain tissue protruded. Unable to decide if he should allow the child to die or agree to an operation which would leave his son permanently brain-damaged, Mr. Oe went on a reporting assignment to Hiroshima that resulted in "a decisive turnabout" of his life which, he says, "eschewing all religious connotations, I would still call a conversion".

The central figure of the essays is Dr. Fumio Shigeta, a medical doctor who was in Hiroshima on the day the A-bomb was dropped. He happened to arrive in the city to take up a new post just a week before the day of the bombing. It is through Dr. Shigeta that Oe learns how the bomb victims become social outcasts, have difficulties finding marital partners, get divorced because they cannot have children, hide in shame in the back-rooms of their houses for years, and commit suicide or go insane upon learning that they are diagnosed as having "an A-bomb disease". In the midst of this pain and suffering, Dr. Shigeta patiently applies his medical skills to help the victims. He ignores the stigma placed on the victims by Japanese society, and for him there is no taboo on issues like the genetic effects of the radiation.

Dr. Shigeta is the "authentic man" for Oe, a person who is "humanist in the truest sense ¡V neither too wildly desperate nor too vainly hopeful". A man of modesty, patience and perseverance, Dr. Shigeta appears to be the real-life counterpart of the fictional Docteur Rieux of Albert Camus's novel The Plague: "When Hiroshima was attacked by radiation - the plague of the modern age - the city was not specifically closed off. Since that day . . . Dr. Shigeta took upon himself the misery of Hiroshima, and has continued to do so for twenty years."

More than anything he saw in Hiroshima, it must have been the example of Dr. Shigeta that made Oe realize that there was just one answer to his own personal question whether his son should be operated to live brain-damaged thereafter or be left to die. If Dr. Shigeta could bear the suffering of thousands of strangers and dedicate his life to relieving their pain, then he could bear the suffering of raising a brain-damaged son. I believe it was this realization that made Oe wake up and face his own suffering: "I think it was in Hiroshima that I got my first concrete insight into human authenticity."

While the Hiroshima Notes are the central document of Oe's humanism, they also provide a uniquely Japanese view of the Hiroshima bombing. Oe examines the feelings of shame and humiliation in the victims, and the attempts of the people of Hiroshima to forget what he calls the "holocaust of the A-bomb".His tone is very restrained and unemotional, devoid of moralizing and anger. Any sensationalism is missing from Oe's writing. He does not accuse or explain, he simply reflects. At times, though, he gets tangled in his reflections. The most embarrassing example is his argument that the A-bomb would never have been dropped on Leopoldville in the Congo because the American decision makers wanted to drop the bomb only on a people with the "human strength to cope with the hell that would follow."This racist, muddled thesis is an absolute exception, however. A small stain on Oe's essays which shows that even a Nobel Prize winner with a conscience will get caught up in prejudices from time to time.

I recommend these essays to anyone who has read Kenzaburo Oe's "A Personal Matter" (the fictional account of the decision the author had to make with regard to his son), and to anyone who ever had to answer the question "why should I rather follow one course of action instead of another when both options involve me suffering?" ... Read more

Book Description
A Healing Family, Kenzaburo Oe's first book since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, is an intimate portrait of the people closest to him. Above all, it is about his son Hikari.

Hikari was born in 1963 with a growth on his brain so large it made him look as if he had two heads. His parents were told he might never be more than a "human vegetable" requiring constant care; but they took the decision to raise him. Today, despite autism, poor vision, and a tendency to seizures, their son is an established composer with two successful CDs to his credit.

Oe has often written about the sorrows and satisfactions of being the parent of a handicapped child, most memorably in A Personal Matter; but nowhere has his writing been more personal, more buoyant, more revealing than in this non-fiction work. Without diminishing the suffering that Hikari and his family have been through, he celebrates the victories that can be won, especially his son's gift for music--his own "language."

Friends make an appearance along the way--doctors, musicians, other writers--as do the themes that have preoccupied Oe all his life: the rights of the underprivileged; the moral authority of the survivors of the atomic bombing; the mystery of language. But his thoughts keep circling back to his family--to the healing power of the family, and the unwitting courage we can all find in ourselves.

The book is illustrated with sketches of family life painted by his wife. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A book that I would read again later.
My first book by Kenzaburo was Silent Cry.Recently I read A Healing Family and found that I really liked it a lot.Yukari's illustrations were beautiful.This book made me feel closer to Oe's family.It is very heart-warming.

At the time I read it, I was in the process of deciding whether to get my wisdom teeth extracted by a dentist or an oral surgeon.I heard that my face would be bruised and swollen, my jaws unhinged, etc. after the surgery.It was quite unnerving just to think about it.Then I read that Hikari has to make weekly visits to the dentist, and that his epileptic pills make his gum terribly swollen.I felt that I am in a much much better situation than some people.It was a consolation to read this book.

One thing I don't quite like about most of Kenzaburo's books is that he refers to a lot of other European writers and their works, which I find hard to understand.Well, that's just my ignorance.

Superb and touching portrait of a family.
Kenzaburo Oe, the Japanese novelist who won the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature, was 28 when his son, Hikari, was born.This event was the most important in Oe's life.Born with a herniated brain, Hikari has needed almost constant care since birth."A Healing Family" is Oe's first non-fiction attempt to make sense of Hikari's life and the effect it has had on the people around him, most importantly his family.

This beautiful book shows the profound love, affection and pride the Oe family take in Hikari's accomplishments and happiness.From the age of five, Hikari has been obsessed with classical music, and eventually began to compose pieces for piano and violin.Much of "A Healing Family" concerns Oe's attempts to understand his son through music.

"A Healing Family" is a book everyone should read.Finely crafted, perceptive, intelligent and moving, it shows us again that compassion and empathy can make all the difference in the world.

A wonderful, soothing book of love....
Hard to believe that no one else has written a review of this book becauseit is excellent...Oe's manner of dealing with his son's affliction andthe effects it has on his family is truly amazing...His manner is trulyone of love and serenity....Without any reservations, I recommendthisbook to anyone who wants to know more about "heart"... ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (5)

A personal touch to war
"The Crazy Iris" edited by Kenzaburo Oe is a collection of stories about the dropping the atomic bombs.These stories are not from a historical context or from a military standpoint, but of normal, relatable people.The stories cover the carnage seen through the eyes of a twelve year old to the memories of women going back thirty years to the high school they once attended.It also covers how the outlying villages were indirectly affected by the bombing through word of mouth and deaths of friends and families.

The Point
I read The Crazy Iris and Other Stories of the Atomic Aftermath by Kenzaburo Oe for an assignment in my History of Japan class. It's a collection of short stories complied to mark the fortieth anniversary of the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as the book jacket says. I am not a fan of overly flowery language (though I suspect the collection wouldn't have sounded as such in its native tongue), but the stories get the point across. The point? Everyone was affected by those weapons, no matter how old you are, what you believe, what your country thinks you should believe, and so on and so forth. I myself do believe that dropping the bombs were warranted and ultimately served their purpose, but to read the tales of survivors in compact form puts things into perspective. I wouldn't wish these sort of memories on anyone. I wouldn't wish anyone to have this pain. I hope to God that moments like Hiroshima and Nagasaki are never forgotten, and that we learn from them.

Don't Listen to A.B.C.D. Reader!
I'm writing this just to offer the opinion that A.B.C.D.'s review is biased (at best) and ultra-nationalist and revisionist (at worst).

Read this book and judge it for yourself.The various stories recount life in militarist Japan, horrifying scenes of atomic aftermath, and the desperate psychological and spiritual struggle to cope with the trauma of survival.This collection is a moving testament to its authors' experiences, but to say that it explicitly is anti-war or blames anyone for the atomic blast would not reflect the entirety of the book.The viewpoints and opinions of the authors are as varied as those of the Japanese themselves.

A.B.C.D. Encirclement
Oe lachrymosely indulges every anti-Japanese propagandist in the american media conglomerate (Ingram) with ample opportunity to smack their lips over the "moral failings" of Japan. The fact that this ineffectual moralist won the Noble prize while it was denied to Mishima speaks volumes on what supine expectations the american propaganda industry expects from Japan. Both left and right. Writer like Oe and Murakami (who deserted his own country for no nobler reason then to make more money after making a sickening porno film popular in the us) are parasites getting fat by preening all the morbid phobias of a degenerate american elite, allowing them to wallow in self-adulation. What would Mr. Oe have done during the war? Sheepishly meet the demands of an expansionist american navy? Allowed China to invade the country so as not to offend their sensitivities? ... Japan chose WAR rightfully, even with the foreknowledge that it was a lost cause. And Japan would not even exist today if Mr. Oe were around then.

Instead of Oe or Murakami or Bannana Yoshimoto's insipid writing for privileged sectors in the american market (The Nanny Diaries) feeding that markets endless appetite for peeling scabs and self-abasement try and find a video of the Shunya Ito film Pride, which angered ALL the right people in the world and was one of the most popular films in recent Japanese cinema. Or any of the great Yukio Mishima's books, who was indeed what he described himself to be "the conscience of post war Japan".

A moving collection depicting the effects of the atomic bomb
Compiled by Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburo Oe, this is a collection ofstories depicting the effects on various people of the atomic bombing ofHiroshima and Nagasaki.The emotional, physical, and social scars aredelicately and movingly presented.Some readers might find a bit too muchsentimentalityfor their taste, but most of the stories are verystrong--especially the title story, by Masuji Ibuse, who also wrote themassive novelization of the bombing of Hiroshima, "Black Rain." Since it consists of short stories and is somewhat less harrowing than"Black Rain," it serves as a good alternative. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe has produced a quirky, introspective novel that uses autobiographical elements to tell the story of a writer's family and his rediscovery of his place therein. Written in the form of a diary, the story is told from the point of view of Ma-Chan, the daughter of a famous writer (identified only as "K") who has decamped to California as a university writer-in-residence. Ma-Chan is left in charge of her equally famous brother, an idiot savant who composes brilliant classical music. The mentally retarded brother, nicknamed Eeyore, has violent fits, periods of incontinence, and a troubling new sexual awareness. Like Faulkner's Benjy Compson, he is the moral center of the book, a touchstone and a catalyst for the muted events that carry the novel to its unpredictable close. Full of digressions on the cinema, modernist music, and the novels of Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Oe's latest novel is a stylized, idiosyncratic confessional that only he could fashion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Taking Care of Your Family
Shizuka na seikatsu or A Quiet Life by Oe Kenzaburo, is a good solid read.At first the story starts out very slow and doesn't really pick up the pace until the last section called, Diary At Home.But the in depth fleshing out of the two principal characters, Machan and Eeyore, more then compensate for lack of plot points.This gives the whole story a very Ozu style atmosphere.Oe, like Ozu, is concerned with side streets instead of busy highways and like the scene in Ozu's Early Summer, where the family visits the great Buddha in Kamakura, the focus is on the family's conversation and the Buddha is ignored.You really feel like you don't want the story to end as you allow yourself to get wrapped up in the characters in their simple everyday lives.This also gives the novel an Ozu quality in that in an Ozu film you don't want the story to end.I was amazed that this book could accomplish such a similar quality.Do yourself a favor and read A Quiet Life. Then read Kaifuku suru Kazoku or A Healing Family, the book that won Oe the Noble Prize.

Intellectually Interesting Introspection from a Nobel Winner
"A Quiet Life" is the first person narrative of Ma-chan, a twenty-year-old university student and the daughter of a famous Japanese author. When her father accepts a visiting professorship at the University of California, and her mother decides to accompany him abroad, Ma-chan is left at home in Japan to care for her older, brain-damaged brother Eeyore (like the character in "Winnie-the-Pooh") and her younger brother, Oh-chan, who is studying for his university entrance exams.

"A Quiet Life" is a slow-moving story with little action and a deeply realistic, human touch. Like much of Oe's writing, "A Quiet Life" is a fictional work that is powerfully marked by a real-life event--the birth of Oe's brain-damaged son in the mid-1960s. Thus, Ma-chan, the narrator, grapples throughout the narrative with her feelings about Eeyore, as well as her feelings about her intellectual and emotionally distant father.

Much of the novel is devoted to exploring Ma-chan's thoughts and feelings as she follows a mundane, day-to-day existence shepherding Eeyore to music lessons with Mr. Shegito, a professor and friend of her father, and to swimming lessons with Mr. Akai, a somewhat cold and sinister character of questionable motives. Along the way, Ma-chan continually realizes that Eeyore is, in many ways, a remarkably sensitive and gifted human being, despite his disability.

Oe's narrative is enigmatic and subtle in its suggestiveness. Oe, through the voice of his narrator, makes much of words that Ma-chan repeats in her narrative, words that are italicized in the text and linger in the reader's mind like ontological talismans. The text, too, reflects the intellectual groundings of Ma-chan's distant father-seemingly the author Oe himself-when it delves into extended discussions of Tarkovsky's film, "Stalker" (based on the classic, if somewhat obscure science fiction novel, "Roadside Picnic" written by the Strugatsky brothers), and the writings of Celine, notably "Rigadoon" (in a somewhat disturbingly sympathetic literary riff on a notorious, albeit fascinating, anti-semite).

While I am familiar with Oe's biography, this is the first novel I have read by him. He is an interesting and intellectually impressive writer who perhaps deserved the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature. I know I will read more of his work. However, as Ma-chan's mother comments when Ma-chan tells her of the title of the diary she has kept: "'Diary as Home' sounds bland and dull." She then elicits a different title from Eeyore, who suggests: "How about 'A Quiet Life'? That's what our life's all about." It is, indeed, the narrative of a quiet life, but Eeyore's title unfortunately does not save Oe's book from being bland and dull. While "A Quiet Life" is redeemed by the sensitivity, the enigmatic feeling and the profound intellect of its author, the story ultimately falters on a sometimes mind-numbing banality and what seems to be a stilted English translation. Thus, while I enjoyed reading "A Quite Life," I often had difficulty maintaining my interest in Oe's narrative.

Quietly Poignant
The title is indeed a fitting summary of this loosely constructed novel's tone and impression.The stories told by Ma-chan are of seemingly ordinary, small incidents (with a few exceptions, notably at the book's end), but they are told with quiet grace.The compassionate view and portrait of Eeyore in particular is well-done, in which a mentally challenged person is not overly sentimentalized nor portrayed as somehow less than human.Clearly the autobiographical elements in Oe's novel have helped to fill out the rounded portraits of the children.

The diversions into the novels of Celine, the films of Tarkovsky, etc. are not irrelevant, but I think they might pose a barrier to readers unfamiliar with those references.

This novel is full of interesting philosophical and psychological insights into the lives of self-described "nobodies."Oe gives these "nobodies" a compelling voice, in the midst of a society that discriminates against the mentally handicapped.A worthy effort.

Intellectually Interesting Introspection from A Nobel Winner
"A Quiet Life" is the first person narrative of Ma-chan, a twenty-year-old university student and the daughter of a famous Japanese author.When her father accepts a visiting professorship at the University of California, and her mother decides to accompany him abroad, Ma-chan is left at home in Japan to care for her older, brain-damaged brother Eeyore (like the character in "Winnie-the-Pooh") and her younger brother, Oh-chan, who is studying for his university entrance exams.

"A Quiet Life" is a slow-moving story with little action and a deeply realistic, human touch.Like much of Oe's writing, "A Quiet Life" is a fictional work that is powerfully marked by a real-life event--the birth of Oe's brain-damaged son in the mid-1960s.Thus, Ma-chan, the narrator, grapples throughout the narrative with her feelings about Eeyore, as well as her feelings about her intellectual and emotionally distant father.

Much of the novel is devoted to exploring Ma-chan's thoughts and feelings as she follows a mundane, day-to-day existence shepherding Eeyore to music lessons with Mr. Shegito, a professor and friend of her father, and to swimming lessons with Mr. Akai, a somewhat cold and sinister character of questionable motives.Along the way, Ma-chan continually realizes that Eeyore is, in many ways, a remarkably sensitive and gifted human being, despite his disability.

Oe's narrative is enigmatic and subtle in its suggestiveness.Oe, through the voice of his narrator, makes much of words that Ma-chan repeats in her narrative, words that are italicized in the text and linger in the reader's mind like ontological talismans.The text, too, reflects the intellectual groundings of Ma-chan's distant father-seemingly the author Oe himself-when it delves into extended discussions of Tarkovsky's film, "Stalker" (based on the classic, if somewhat obscure science fiction novel, "Roadside Picnic" written by the Strugatsky brothers), and the writings of Celine, notably "Rigadoon" (in a somewhat disturbingly sympathetic literary riff on a notorious, albeit fascinating, anti-semite).

While I am familiar with Oe's biography, this is the first novel I have read by him.He is an interesting and intellectually impressive writer who perhaps deserved the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature.I know I will read more of his work.However, as Ma-chan's mother comments when Ma-chan tells her of the title of the diary she has kept:"'Diary as Home' sounds bland and dull."She then elicits a different title from Eeyore, who suggests: "How about `A Quiet Life'?That's what our life's all about."It is, indeed, the narrative of a quiet life, but Eeyore's title unfortunately does not save Oe's book from being bland and dull. While "A Quiet Life" is redeemed by the sensitivity, the enigmatic feeling and the profound intellect of its author, the story ultimately falters on a sometimes mind-numbing banality and what seems to be a stilted English translation.Thus, while I enjoyed reading "A Quite Life," I often had difficulty maintaining my interest in Oe's narrative.

This book is twice as long as its length...
This is the type of book that cannot be summarized without

bothering tolook further than two inches in front of you.

There are *reasons* whythe "Stalker" movie is dealt with in

depth, there are*reasons* why the French novelist is

discussed in depth.If onebothers to look into Oe's

background and situation, it can be a highlyeducational,

thought-provoking, and (GASP!) entertaining novel.

Inmy opinion, this is a monumental climax to a wonderful

career.TheNobel Prize Committee seems to have agreed

with me.A great way tounderstand the novel is to think

about *WHY* he wrote it, at the time hedid.

Also, I could be mistaken, but I believe that the narrator

doesnot exist in real life - which makes this wonderful

story all-the-morefascinating....

I HIGHLY recommend this novel, especially for those who

have a little time to learn about Oe and his story. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Oe Fan
I read Pinchrunner Memorandum in the fall of 2001. It was the final book for the assigned reading for a class taught by the translator, Professor Michiko Wilson. After reading the novel I became a single goose bump as the significance sunk in. I later found out that this book was the final in a series often called the Handicapped Son, and I have read the rest of the series that has been translated. It is comparable to Mishima's tetralogy, except that it is much less trite and self-indulgent.

Oe encompasses all of humanity in Pinchrunner Memorandum by delving into the marginal world and explicating how it reveals the darker side of society led by a force seeking chaos through subliminal tyranny. Similar to Oe's parody of Mishima in One Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away, Oe takes the role of court jester and reveals the panting, self-destructive struggle of humanity through his use of grotesque realism as a man and his son attempt to save the world from the annihilation it so desperately seeks. They brave savage riots of students from the left and right, nuclear terrorists, and maniac capitalists. One common trait among all these people is that suicide is a foregone conclusion for victory. Those who are not willing to die condemn themselves to defeat. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Moving, Thoughtful, Layers of Meaning
This is my fifth Oe novel, and I am always surprised at how one theme manifests in myriad fascinating plots. However, I am not surprised that he was the Nobel laureate in literature for 1994. Oe's writing is dominated by his decidedly masculine presence, but never loses itself in it. His descriptive language is eloquent without becoming mired in flocks of adverbs and adjectives (thanks also to a fine translation). In each of the novels I've read, a parent faces the challenges of a handicapped son, just as has Oe in real life. But in each of his fictitious works, the handicap varies and never duplicates his son's challenges nor the challenges of the characters in his other books. Rouse Up is a closer parallel to Oe's own experience than any of his other novels. It is decidedly autobiographical. No doubt he has used the novel format to cause some things to have a more satisfactory outcome than they may have had in real life. For instance, according to the Afterword written by translator John Nathan, Oe gives the fictional son a more robust ability to express himself than his real-life son. As Nathan describes it: "he is able to express himself in words, conveying wit and tenderness and compassion and his own brand of reductive wisdom about the world as he experiences it." Oe's real-life son, Hikari, has the gift of music. Though profoundly brain damaged, he has made his man's mark in the world as a celebrated composer. In an interview, speaking of Hikari's healing music, Oe commented, "My son's music is a model of my literature. I want to do the same thing." [...] Rouse Up is about fathers and sons, about the elation and disappointments of parenthood, about the joys and burdens of responsibility. Every son's father will find himself there. And, ultimately, like Hikari's music and Kenzaburo's prose, the journey is about healing.

More Rousing than Most Oe Novels
Of the Oe novels I've read, this is one of the better ones in my opinion. A low key, understated spirituality suffuses this novel, and the narrator's engagement with the poetry of William Blake adds resonance and depth to Oe's prose (which otherwise often strikes me as okay but somewhat flat).
While the work is fiction, it is crafted from events in Oe's real life and is thus more autobiographical than American readers may be comfortable with. This is a common feature of much Japanese fiction, as with the prewar I-Novels (shishosetsu) or the works of Shiga Naoya, though it is not an unknown phen