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Early Light
Series: Storybook ND Series
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Early Light
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Early Light gathers three tales by Osamu Dazai, author of the wildly popular No Longer Human
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Description
Early Light offers three very different aspects of Osamu Dazai's genius. The title story relates his misadventures as a drinker and a family man during the terrible fire bombings of Tokyo at the end of WWII. Having lost their own home, he and his wife flee with a new baby boy and their little girl to relatives in Kofu, only to be bombed out anew. "Everything's gone," the father explains to his daughter: "Mr. Rabbit, our shoes, the Ogigari house, the Chino house, they all burned up," "Yeah, they all burned up," she said, still smiling.
One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, another autobiographical tale, is much more comic. Dazai finds himself unable to escape the famous views, the beauty once immortalised by Hokusai and now reduced to a cliché. In the end, young girls torment him by pressing him into taking their photo before the famous peak: "Goodbye," he hisses through his teeth, "Mount Fuji. Thanks for everything. Click."
The final story is Villon's Wife, a small masterpiece, which relates the awakening to power of a drunkard's wife. She transforms herself into a woman not to be defeated by anything, not by her husband being a thief, a megalomaniacal writer, and a wastrel. Single-handedly, she saves the day by concluding that "There's nothing wrong with being a monster, is there? As long as we can stay alive."
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Early Light
Early Light offers three very different aspects of Osamu Dazai's genius. The title story relates his misadventures as a drinker and a family man during the terrible fire bombings of Tokyo at the end of WWII. Having lost their own home, he and his wife flee with a new baby boy and their little girl to relatives in Kofu, only...Hardback$3399Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Early Light by Osamu Dazai is appreciated for its lasting beauty and insightful exploration of identity and history, with themes of art and the quest for alternatives that never materialise. Reviewers highlight Dazai’s impressive psychological insight, presenting unfiltered themes in this captivating historical fiction.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780811231985
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 27 September 2022
Country: United States
Imprint: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Contributors:
- Translated by Ralph McCarthy
- Translated by Donald Keene
- Translated by Donald Keene
- Translated by Donald Keene
- Translated by Ralph McCarthy
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 15.0mm
Width: 160.0mm
Height: 239.0mm
Weight: 252g
Pages: 64
About the Author
The author of the global bestseller No Longer Human and The Setting Sun, Osamu Dazai (1909-1948) was famous for confronting head-on the social and moral crises of postwar Japan. He committed suicide by drowning in Tokyo’s Tamagawa Aqueduct. Donald Keene, the author of dozens of books in both English and Japanese as well as the famed translator of Dazai, Kawabata, and Mishima, was the first non-Japanese to receive the Yomiuri Prize for Literature. Ralph McCarthy has lived in Japan for almost two decades. He is the translator of two collections of stories by Osamu Dazai, “Self Portraits” and “Blue Bamboo,” and of Ryu Murakami’s novel 69.
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