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  <id type="integer">25191</id>
  <isbn>0802150616</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780802150615</isbn13>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Personal Matter]]>
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  <average_rating>3.97</average_rating>
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    <![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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    <id>14162</id>
        <name><![CDATA[Kenzaburo Oë]]></name>
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    <text_reviews_count>277</text_reviews_count>
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  </authors>  <published>1969</published>
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    <rating>4</rating>
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  <date_added>Wed May 20 20:59:59 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed May 20 21:00:13 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Financially, I felt cheated when I bought this. $3 is too much for a tattered, coffee-stained paperback, but I just decided to yield to the sharks that prey on college students, and unfolded a few bills. The topic alone assured me that it would be a good read, and I did want this book on my shelf as...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/56817669">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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