Kafka on the Shore

After reading and enjoying Haruki Murakami’s A Wild Sheep Chase and Norwegian Wood, I was disappointed in his 2002 novel, Kafka on the Shore (海辺のカフカ). Parts stand out visually or amuse or offer some insight. All in all, though, it felt unnecessarily long and disorienting, and some of the dominant themes seemed adolescent, while the magic realism went too far for my taste. I like Murakami and look forward to reading his other work, but I wish I’d given this one a pass or read it some other time I might’ve gotten more out of it.

Kiku's Prayer

Kiku's Prayer first appeared as a newspaper serial in the Asahi Shimbun between November 1980 and July 1981. An English translation was published in 2012, and the second novel, Sachiko, will be released in English in August of this year (2020). Both are set mainly in Nagasaki, the first in the years toward the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and early Meiji era (around 1868) and the latter during the years leading up to the atomic bombing of the city. Often called Japan's Graham Greene, Shusaku Endo was a Catholic too and, like Greene, had paradoxical views on religious matters, which he addressed in his writing. With a different perspective on some of the same themes he examined in his novel Silence (1966), Kiku's Prayer and Sachiko are also historical novels about the persecution of Japan's Christians.

Kiku's Prayer is a tragic love story as well, with gut-wrenching descriptions of torture and self-sacrifice that Endo seems to protract almost sadistically in places. Another interesting aspect of the novel is its portrayals of early foreign residents (Chinese, Dutch, French) in Nagasaki, including Fr. Bernard-Thadée Petitjean and Western diplomats who put pressure on the Tokugawa and Meiji governments to end its centuries-old persecution of Kirishitan Japanese. The narrative arc, from childhood to old age, is well designed, with some characters slipping in and out of lead roles over the span of the story. The persecutor Ito Seizaemon is an especially compelling, one-of-a-kind character, superbly despicable and pitiful. Overall, Kiku's Prayer is a good book, and I look forward to reading Sachiko.

Red Roofs and Other Stories

Four disparate short stories by one of Japan's greatest writers make up this collection. Written between 1917 and 1926, they're told with a blend of realism and fabulism. And in all four Tanizaki explores from different angles the pursuits and pitfalls of pleasure. The first story, “The Strange Case of Tomoda and Matsunaga,” is similar in a way to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and well crafted. Next is “A Night in Qinhuai,” which seems like a personal essay and takes us on a late-night search for a suitable brothel. Again a craving for the exotic pushes the narrative forward, and it's rather disturbing in its descriptions of dismal endless backstreets and a man's hunger to satiate his desire. Then in “The Magician” things get weird. I like this one for how bizarre and intense it gets, unlike anything I'd read before by the author. The final story, “Red Roofs,” brings the reader back to realism, and it's unique in that it revolves around a woman, whereas most of Tanizaki's works are centered on male characters. The story felt somewhat aimless at the beginning, but it comes together by the end. Felt, too, a bit like Haruki Murakami, or Tanazaki's novel Quicksand. Overall, the collection is great writing with a variety of narrative styles and compelling characters.