japanese literature

[Ex-User (11125)]

so...any other people on here who enjoy reading Japanese literature? what are your favourite works?

Spoiler

love the prevalent mono-no-aware theme in Japanese literature, and also the slowness, poignancy and character depth in the stories. i enjoy works by osamu dazai, yukio mishima, natsume soseki, yasunari kawabata and kobo abe the most

 

[Cherry Cola]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind-Up_Bird_Chronicle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silent_Cry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_in_the_Dunes

These are good. Especially the first two.

 

[Ex-User (11125)]

love woman in the dunes!! one of the greatest pieces of literature ever written imo
(havent read the first two)

 

[Absurdity]

Yukio Mishima is a master.

Shusaku Endo is good too. Never managed to get into Murakami but I got Kafka on the Shore for Christmas.

 

[Puffy]

Been reading Japanese death poems for a while, mostly haiku, and enjoy the concept: http://www.quietspaces.com/deathpoems.html

 

[Ex-User (11125)]

Yukio Mishima is a master.

agreed.
and same with murakami. i read sputnik sweetheart...kinda liked it, but not enough to want to read more of his works

 

[Cherry Cola]

Murakami is kinda uneven, sputnik sweetheart is not one of his stronger works

never read Mishima, should get around to it :O

how is he as a writer? i just know that as a person he was as badass as you could get

 

[Cognisant]

Uetora by Zounose

Kaminare by Zounose

Passion for your Sake by Jiroo

 

[Ex-User (11125)]

yukio mishima <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 *thread overflows with hearts*
his prose is something else.
i love how elegant, lyrical and beautiful his prose is in contrast with the grittiness of his themes.

my personal favourite by him, till now(might change if i read more of his works), is the sailor who fell from grace with the sea

 

[Absurdity]

The Sound of Waves is good by Mishima too. Heard good things about Confessions of a Mask as well.

 

[swagilly]

I've actually been meaning to read more from Japanese authors and Eastern authors in general as I'm starting to get bored with the repeated tropes and predictability of western material. So thanks for an interesting list of authors and books to check out...

That being said, I did read one that i totally enjoyed a while back. I can't remember the name now but it was about a librarian who had serious medically related gender issues... anyone read that book?

 

[Ex-User (11125)]

i vaguely remember my friend telling me kafka on the shore has a trans librarian character...so maybe thats the book?

 

[Ex-User (11125)]

ooooh this thread
update: i dont hate murakami anymore
i read tony takitani(and watched the film adaptation) and fucking loved it
i think i'll give murakami a chance

 

[Absurdity]

ooooh this thread
update: i dont hate murakami anymore
i read tony takitani(and watched the film adaptation) and fucking loved it
i think i'll give murakami a chance

Yeah, since my first post in this thread I've read almost everything he's ever published. His books have pretty predictable patterns but I still find them spellbinding for whatever reason.

Windup Bird Chronicle is probably my favorite. Hardboiled Wonderland is probably number 2, then 1Q84.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

Hardboiled Wonderland was a pretty decent sci-fi story. I read 1Q84 and it was okay but I wouldn't read something similar again, it got boring towards the end.

 

[Ex-User (11125)]

Yeah, since my first post in this thread I've read almost everything he's ever published. His books have pretty predictable patterns but I still find them spellbinding for whatever reason.

Windup Bird Chronicle is probably my favorite. Hardboiled Wonderland is probably number 2, then 1Q84.

read tony takitani it's great
im gonna try windup bird chronicle later then

recently been into kenzaburo oe's works. i started reading silent cry and a personal matter
both are pretty powerful, sad and visceral but there's always underlying hope and humour