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    <name><![CDATA[Anna]]></name>
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  <id type="integer">25191</id>
  <isbn>0802150616</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780802150615</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">99</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Personal Matter]]>
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  <average_rating>3.97</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>790</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&lt;DIV&gt;Oe’s most important novel, A Personal Matter, has been called by The New York Times “close to a perfect novel.” In A Personal Matter, Oe has chosen a difficult, complex though universal subject: how does one face and react to the birth of an abnormal child? Bird, the protagonist, is a young man of 27 with antisocial tendencies who more than once in his life, when confronted with a critical problem, has “cast himself adrift on a sea of whisky like a besotted Robinson Crusoe.” But he has never faced a crisis as personal or grave as the prospect of life imprisonment in the cage of his newborn infant-monster. Should he keep it? Dare he kill it? Before he makes his final decision, Bird’s entire past seems to rise up before him, revealing itself to be a nightmare of self-deceit. The relentless honesty with which Oe portrays his hero — or antihero — makes Bird one of the most unforgettable characters in recent fiction. &lt;/div&gt;]]>
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    <author>
    <id>14162</id>
        <name><![CDATA[Kenzaburo Oë]]></name>
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    <average_rating>3.87</average_rating>
    <ratings_count>2390</ratings_count>
    <text_reviews_count>277</text_reviews_count>
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  </authors>  <published>1969</published>
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    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>2</votes>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[Shavit B.]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Jul 30 07:46:11 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Jul 31 15:07:06 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I think one reason I love this book so much is because I really detested it when I started reading it.  Like, I really really hated the main character.  The book starts off with this 20-something college professor named Bird, who is wandering the streets after drinking in a bar.  His wife is in the ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/28733719">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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