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Jan 30, 2012

mark rated it:

here are some words and phrases regarding this collection of thematically-linked novellas by left-leaning post-war Japanese author Oe Kenzaburo:

- surreal, dream-like

- grotesque, morbid

- humanistic, humane

- unsentimental, clear-eyed

- a modernist style of writing with a postmodern view of the world

- unreal, a hair-raising and uncomfortable kind of unreal

- a genuine realism that kind of hurts to read

- up More...

7 comments like (19 people liked it)

Oct 26, 2008

Alan rated it:

Incredible. Astonished. This is one of those books that puts tiny fingers in between the breaches in what one thought was a continuous idea of the possible in a book, and breaks it apart, leaving and making use of these fascinating new spaces. It is embarassing but I felt as if this book were a hose pumping a fuel hungry to be used, designed only for me, into my brain. It gets better and better.
My organs are too destroyed to write any meaningful analysis, so: FUCKING BRILLIANT.

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 19, 2009

Lawrence rated it:

Four short novels that have many elements in common: the past and how it invades and affects current lives, damaged children and the as-a-result damaged parents, and the existential struggle of a character who is attempting to understand his place in the world. Prize Stock with its story of relationship between the African American airman and the Japanese villages who capture him after his plane crashes during the war and Aghwee The Sky Monster in which a hired companion for a once famous conc More...

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Feb 12, 2010

Jenny rated it:

This is one of those books that should be on all those cannon lists of major modern Eastern writers--well, it probably is and it finally popped up on my radar. The first one was rather tough going, but in the end rewarded the reader for sticking to the journey. The second is a classic short story but original for its subjects and perspectives. The third is an even deeper tribute to narcissism than the first--but also blessedly recognizes and somewhat reverses that mindset. The fourth brought More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 21, 2010

Traci rated it:

The more I think about it, the more these four short novels seem to be about the violence that fathers do to their sons--and so the sons to their sons. Violence by indifference, by hatchet, by symbiosis and sugar water. And how this is one generation's betrayal of another, repeated over and over and over again.

I'm struck by how the use of italics can turn an everyday word or phrase into a magic word or phrase (a certain party, the catch), and how it therefore becomes an incantation More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 03, 2010

Ebtihal rated it:

الكتاب عبارة عن أربع روايات قصيرة (أو يمكن قصص طويلة!)

علمنا أن نتجاوز جنوننا: تتحدث عن ارتباط فوق معتاد بين اب وابنه، الابن مصاب بعته منذ الولادة يمنعه من الكلام والتعبير عن نفسه والأب يعتقد انه حين يلمس اصبع ابنه فإن مشاعر ابنه تنتقل إليه وتنطلق من خلاله. هذه الرواية جاءت بعد ولادة الطفل الأول لكينزابورو، بورم في الدماغ.

الرواية الثانية في الكتاب (يوم يكفكف دمعي بنفسه) كانت فخاً، وحين انتصفت فيها مع شعوري بالضياع وصعوبة المواصلة عدت لقراءة مراجعات من سبقوني فوجدتهم ينصحون More...

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Oct 17, 2010

Ken rated it:

What a way to finish up my tour of the great Japanese writers of the 20th century. It’s not often you can call a writer brave. Generally it’s reserved for writers who risked their own lives for their art. Alexander Solzhenitsyn would be a good example. But as I read the tales in Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness, I could only stand in awe at how brave Kenzaburō Ōe was as a storyteller.

Take the opening tale, “The Day He Himself Shall Wipe Away My Tears.” It is told entirely from the pros More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 14, 2008

علی rated it:

This is the first by Kenzabouro I’ve read. I didn’t get very much things in English. A narration by a 35-year-old man who is lying in a hospital, looking forward his death, of liver cancer, singing the song; “Happy days are here again", thinking about his earlier days, his mother and father, in a village, etc. etc. I was sure it’s because of my English. Then a few monthes after he got Noble Prize, this book became translated to Persian. I read it again, but there was not a big help to fully More...

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Dec 10, 2007

Nora rated it:

I read three of the four novellas in this book, and they were breathtaking. The one remaining section is said in the introduction to be "Oe's most difficult and disturbing work to date." So I'm holding off until I have the time and energy to devote to it, and in the meantime, a student who read Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids wanted to read more by this author. (Always a good sign.)

One novella hits starkly upon the irony of rural villagers treating a downed black American p More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 06, 2009

Ariel marked it as to-read

I climbed precariously on a chair to pluck this from the highest shelf. There's no way I could've read the spine from the ground. What was I looking for to start with? Celine? Instead, this title, which sounded at first like a self-help book worth skimming for a laugh.

And, instead, the back: "Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness" tells of the close relationship between an outlandishly fat father and his mentally defective son, Eeyore. "Aghwee the Sky Monster" is More...

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Mar 24, 2011

kasia rated it:

I read two of the novels, Prize Stock and Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness. I mean to go back and read the other two at some point, because the two were wonderful (though Prize Stock is... troubling in many ways). They're very strange, surreal kinds of books, but really warm and lovable at the same time. Good stuff.

Edit: Just finished Aghwee the Sky Monster. Overall, I have to say, I've never encountered writing where I feel so drawn in and alienated at the same time. There's somethin More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 09, 2008

Jimmy rated it:

I've not yet read the 1st novella in this book. I may revisit it later. The 4/5 star rating is for the rest of this collection:

"Prize Stock": my favorite; a strange and powerful tale that really resonated with me. 5/5

"Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness": strange is just the beginning here. But there is tenderness here too. The ending wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped, but the writing is solid. 3.5/5

"Aghwee the Sky Monster": rea

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 26, 2011

Graham rated it:

Ōe's short fiction is characterized by clashes - cultural, temporal, generational - churning masses of experience cast against one another, occasionally overlapping but mostly resulting in tiny armageddons that offer a thorough picture of all that is insignificant and transcendent in the human experience.

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Aug 10, 2011

Jake rated it:

Sadly I had to abort reading this book 20 pages into it. Oe is basically a wackier, more absurdist predecessor to Haruki Murakami, an author I've read pretty extensively. He's kind of hard to read and not very accessible, what with the shifting narration and what-not. I've been about 20 pages into it all summer and I think I'm going to have to pull the plug on it. I think I read too much Murakami before reading Oe, so it feels like I've already read this book (I really get the sense Murakami was More...

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Oct 01, 2010

Eric rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Aug 28, 2011

Vianna rated it:

Blah! I don’t think I like Japanese literature in translation. I found the stories hard to follow because of the awkward us of pronouns and lack of proper nouns. Not my cup of tea at all!

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Oct 09, 2011

Finlay rated it:

I really liked “A Personal Matter”, but this collection of shorter stories seemed like a rehash of similar ideas. Or maybe they came first and I read these in reverse order.

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Apr 03, 2011

Wendy rated it:

Interesting...the main character is never given an name - just called "the fat man." I'll be interested to see what the kiddos do with this one.

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Nov 29, 2008

Ann rated it:

this is the most lovable book. it's harsh, obsessive, and specific, beautifully written.

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Sep 17, 2009

Mel rated it:

I have completed the first two novels in this collection-I will read the rest soon-

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Aug 06, 2011

Víctor rated it:

No es el mejor de este maestrazo...

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Dec 17, 2008

Jenn rated it:

awesome. The characters and the narration itself is so crazy that you never really know what's going on, but it's still awesome. And John Nathan is simply a baller translator.

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Dec 16, 2011

Connor rated it:

This book is interesting, partly because I suspect it contains copious amounts of autobiographical material. But where this novel really becomes interesting is the fourth story, when it transcends autobiography. The first three stories mesh with Oe's established biography to varying degrees, but the fourth story marks a departure into the land of "what if?" Oe ponders what if his life had turned out differently and how he would appear to some outside observer.

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Mar 16, 2010

Kelly rated it:

“My life has a splendid continuity, don’t you agree, especially in the details?”

For maximum psychological effect, read the stories in this order:

Aghwee, The Sky Monster
Prize Stock
Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness
The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away

The final story on this list exhibits an autobiographical bravery that verges on the perverse. Something like laying out organs on a table: brain, heart, liver, spleen.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 08, 2008

Katherine rated it:

A few people have so far asked me how Oe stacks up against Murakami, a comparison which I'm sure Oe himself is well and truly sick of.

But for all the curious hipsters reading this review, here it is: more literal, less allegory, less weird-for-weird's-sake, more social commentary, more righteous anger, much tighter plot lines, much stronger prose.

I am thoroughly impressed by Oe and I'm looking forward to reading more.

1 comment like

Jan 13, 2010

Austin rated it:

This book is full of blood and sweat. It's a tough book, not necessarily because his narratives are complicated (although they are), but because it's constantly challenging you, particularly me as a Westerner who has to use my imagination to reflect on some things that are not part of my cultural milieu. This book is a beautiful, fantastic, and unique experience not for the faint of heart.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 13, 2008

Molly rated it:

What did the author's mother do to him? Sometimes I wonder if it is possible to translate Japanese, because there is always something sparse in my understanding. But the last story, about a fat doting father and his retarded son, riding on the bike to get pork noodles, visiting the hospital after a monkey attack, it just hurt me kind of like the movie "Julian Donkey Boy" did.

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Apr 15, 2011

Jason rated it:

amazing & weird!

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Feb 05, 2011

Ana rated it:

A very original work. Four short stories on madness, strange (many times troubled) relationships among parents and sons, and the war as seen from a child's view. The Day He Himself... took me some effort to follow on. Prize Stock, my favorite: "When a war starts smashing kids' fingers it's going too far".

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Dec 05, 2011

Eel rated it:

Great. I don't really know what to say about it. Ōe creates characters that have a little bit of insanity in a way that makes the stories read as though magic is maybe real, I guess. Some of the stories are disturbing at times but they are a joy to read, and John Nathan is an excellent translator.

2 comments like

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