Publisher's Weekly Review
Layered and reflexive, Nobel winner Oe's (The Changeling) novel concerns itself with an elderly writer, Kogito Choko, whose inability to write "the drowning novel," a fictional account of his father's death by drowning, threatens both his health and his plans to provide for his family after his death. As a child, Choko-then called Kogii-witnessed his father's ill-fated boat trip in the Shikoku forest region of his childhood. When he revisits the forests and delves into the area's history and folklore at his sister Asa's invitation, he discovers not only other witnesses to his father's voyage-including a nationalist former disciple of his dad's-but that "the materials in the red leather trunk" required for his research were destroyed by his mother long ago. Bereft, Choko finds himself cooperating with an experimental theater troupe, who wish to adapt his body of work for the stage using the visionary Unaiko's "throwing the dead dogs" method, whereupon meta-narrative discussion and the throwing of stuffed dogs occur on stage. Choko's disappointment over the uselessness of the red leather trunk's contents drives him to lash out at his adult, intellectually disabled composer son, Akari, and when his wife, Chikashi, undergoes treatment for a serious illness, she's most concerned about this unprecedented rift between father and son. Told in echoing and overlapping accounts of conversations, telephone calls, and stage performances, Oe's deceptively tranquil idiom scans the violent history of postwar Japan and its present-day manifestations, in the end finding redemption. Agent: Jacqueline Ko, Wylie Agency. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
Kogito Choko, an aging writer of international renown, is still grappling with the drowning death of his ultranationalist father during World War II. His controlling sister Asa possesses a red leather trunk that Choko believes holds the key to their father's death and the nucleus of his own final novel. When the contents of the trunk prove disappointing, Choko abandons his book, succumbing to a depression exacerbated by his wife's illness and an emotional split from his adult son, who suffers from learning disabilities. After a contrived meeting with the actress Unaiko, Choko partners with her avant-garde theatrical troupe, examining his earlier oeuvre, a political mind-set shaped by war, a career plagued by censorship yet resulting in a Nobel Prize, and the tragedy of a son who was born with severe limitations but is able to compose glorious music. Oe is known for obscuring the lines between reality and fiction, but here that practice feels self-indulgent. The didactic, hectoring style detracts from a narrative that should be thoughtfully introspective. Could it be that the graceful prose one would expect from a Nobel laureate has been lost in translation? verdict Originally published in Japan in 2009, this is the fifth in a series that began with The Changeling. The subject matter, familiar to Oe's followers, may not satisfy general fiction readers. [See Prepub Alert, 4/27/15.]-Sally Bissell, formerly with Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.