Japanese Literature Challenge!
I was thinking to myself- what type of book haven’t I read lately? The answer comes to me- Japanese lit! I usually love any Japanese lit I come across (an exception being The Wind Up Bird Chronicles,...
View ArticleNaomi in Westernized Japan
In Junichiro Tanizaki’s Naomi, an older shy engineer becomes enamored with a fifteen-year-old cafe hostess. Joji is attracted to Naomi because of her “Western” appearance and name, which to him...
View ArticleUgetsu Monogatari
Ueda Akinara’s Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain) is a collection of nine short stories, each containing supernatural and otherworldly elements. The tales were written in the 18th...
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I Am a Blog Post
I have finished Natsume Soseki’s long and rambling novel, I Am a Cat. It did take a bit of perseverance on my part – the book is not only long, but often waxing philosophical on no one subject in...
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Snow Country
Snow Country is a small, rich novel by Yasunari Kawabata. Kawabata, partially in reaction to earlier, more verbose authors, and partially to evoke emotions over describing events, wrote the novel in a...
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After the Banquet
After the Banquet is the last book in my self-declared “Japanese Literature challenge”. I have read Mishima before, but it was ten years ago. Also, it is sometimes difficult to read very famous...
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Japanese Literature Challenge: A Retrospective
I recently finished a self-imposed Japanese literature challenge (consisting of After the Banquet, Snow Country, I am a Cat, Naomi, and Ugetsu Monogatari). Though I have previous read many other...
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