![]() ![]() Childhood and Educationįor every bit of prowess demonstrated in Soseki’s work, there has always been an underlying trauma in his real life. ![]() Botchan and the satirical I am a Cat also deserve a read. ![]() Kokoro sees its namesake-the heart-viewed through the minimized, abstracted view that the Japanese mind seems perfectly ready to conjure up at the stroke of a pen. The vulnerability of his characters and the tastefulness with which he glides into difficult subject matter is unparalleled. It’s a truly touching story that ends in tragedy-intended, I reckon, to open up discussion about its cause (and indeed the book has been widely debated). That is to say, if you haven’t read anything by him, start with his 1914 novel Kokoro. The source of his notoriety is better read than merely told about. There is a very short list of authors that any reader even mildly appraised to Asian fiction will know, and Natsume Soseki is one of them. However, given the right person and the right purview for what constitutes “contemporary,” one may easily say Natsume Soseki instead. ![]() Haruki Murakami is in my mind the foremost name one associates with contemporary Japanese literature. ![]()
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