Five Modern Japanese Novelists

The New Yorker has called Donald Keene "America's preeminent scholar of Japanese literature." Now he presents a new book that serves as both a superb introduction to modern Japanese fiction and a memoir of his own lifelong love affair with Japanese literature and culture. Five Modern Japanese Novelistsprofiles five prominent writers whom Donald Keene knew personally: Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, Abe Ko¯bo¯, and Shiba Ryo¯taro¯. Keene masterfully blends vignettes describing his personal encounters with these famous men with autobiographical observations and his trademark learned literary and cultural analysis.

Keene opens with a confession: before arriving in Japan in 1953, despite having taught Japanese for several years at Cambridge, he knew the name of only one living Japanese writer: Tanizaki. Keene's training in classical Japanese literature and fluency in the language proved marvelous preparation, though, for the journey of literary discovery that began with that first trip to Japan, as he came into contact, sometimes quite fortuitously, with the genius of a generation. It is a journey that will fascinate experts and newcomers alike

Columbia University Press

A superb introduction to modern Japanese fiction as well as a memoir of his own love affair with Japanese literature and culture, this volume consists of chapters on five modern Japanese novelists whom Donald Keene knew personally: Yasunari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Ryotaro Shiba, and Kobo Abe. Each chapter opens with a vignette describing Keene's personal encounters with these famous men, blending his autobiographical observations with literary and cultural analysis.

Library Journal

Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Yasunari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima, Kobo Abe, and Ryotaro Shiba: these great men of modern Japanese letters were all acquaintances of Keene (Columbia Univ.), and he writes in a charming, personal tone, recounting humorous anecdotes, telling the stories of their first meetings, and sharing his initial impressions. As they have all died (Shiba most recently, in 1996), this slender book is Keene's tribute to them. He mentions their best-known works and discusses some of the controversies surrounding them, e.g., Kawabata is known for having won the Nobel prize in literature in 1968 although Mishima was considered a strong candidate. Mishima, of course, made world news with his spectacular suicide by seppuku in 1970. A helpful list of the novelists' major translated works is provided at the end. Recommended for libraries with large collections of Japanese literature.-Kitty Chen Dean, Nassau Coll., Garden City, NY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Donald Keene is Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University. He is the author of more than thirty books, including the definitive multi-volume history of Japanese literature, and, most recently, Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852—1912. He divides his time between Tokyo and New York City.