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bookshelves: fraudio, summer-2013, japan, nobel-laureate, shortstory-shortstories-novellas, translation, published-1958, plague-disease, slit-yer-wrists-gloomy, wwii, ouch, lifestyles-deathstyles, debut, next Read from August 14 to 18, 2013 gboxNarrated by Eduardo BalleriniOne wouldn't want to g...
gboxNarrated by Eduardo BalleriniOne wouldn't want to grapple with this if on a downer, you know, the back yard filled with black dogs and storms torrenting within the four walls of one's chest; this is human misery on a stick.
This is a harsh tale, and the first-person narration is written in short, hard sentences, in simple blunt words, very corporeal, unsparing of ugly bodily details; emotions are depicted simply, mostly harsh emotions, but allowing for moments of joy and tenderness. It's an unusual style, over the cour...
A translation of the Japanese work by the 1994 Nobel Prize winner. Written in 1958. The tale of a group of reformatory school boys, evacuated to a remote area in the mountains to escape the war, but they never escape their lack of freedom and can never escape the oppression and cruelty of society.
Oe is amazing, this novel gripped my soul. It's lyrical, drawing you in, but also disturbing, making you want to pull away. There's something about plague that always gets me, something so scary, but real. I see the link to "Lord of the Flies", which I loved as well, but this one was something else ...
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