Embracing Family

by Nobuo Kojima

Set during the U.S. Occupation following World War II, Embracing Family is a novel of conflict--between Western and Eastern traditions, between a husband and wife, between ideals and reality. At the opening of the book, Miwa Shunsuke and his wife are trapped in a strained marriage, subtly attacking one another in a manner similar to that of the characters in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? When his wife has an affair with an American GI, Miwa is forced to come to terms with the disintegration of their relationship and the fact that his attempts to repair it only exacerbate the situation. An award-winning novel, critics have read this book as a metaphor of postwar Japanese society, in which the traditional moral and philosophical basis of Japanese culture is neglected in favor of Western conventions.

Genres: Japan, Fiction, Japanese Literature

161 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Nobuo Kojima (小島 信夫 Kojima Nobuo?, February 28, 1915 - October 26, 2006) was a Japanese writer prominent in the postwar era. He is most readily associated with other writers of his generation, such as Shōtarō Yasuoka, who describe the effects of Japan's defeat in World War II on the country's psyche.

From an early age, Kojima read a wide variety of literature, both Japanese and Western, and such writers as Nikolai Gogol, Franz Kafka, and Fyodor Dostoevsky had a strong influence on his work. In addition to his fiction, he had a long career as a professor of English literature at Meiji University in Tokyo, publishing criticism and making translations of many major American writers, including Dorothy Parker, Irwin Shaw, and Bernard Malamud.

(from Wikipedia)

Nobuo Kojima was born in Gifu Prefecture and started writing for private magazines while still in high school. He began teaching middle-school English after graduating from the University of Tokyo in English literature in 1941, but was drafted and sent to China a year later. Discharged in 1946, he resumed writing while also working as a high school and university instructor. Kojima won the Akutagawa Prize for "Amerikan sukuru" (American School) in 1955, and in 1957 he received a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation to travel to the United States and study the works of such American authors as Anderson, Faulkner and Saroyan. His own fiction ranges widely from the experimental to the allegorical and symbolic.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A complex and surrealistic portray of a marriage’s spiral, the husband’s motive and behaviors and thought processes are so bizarre and unorthodox that they come down as unbelievable and unconvincing, still, very much relishing the first and second parts, the third part drags on and on, then near the end something promising and enticing starts to happen and then we have an abrupt end. Anyway, glad that I had read this.

[aclypse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Embracing Family takes place in the 60s, in the post-war Japan. A somewhat rich family hires a maid to clean their house but o-oh, the head of the family, Shunsuke, is very unsatisfied with her (truly non-existent) work. Instead, his wife Tokiko only babbles around with her, shows her dissatisfaction with him, and as he later finds out… sleeps with an American. Their conflict arises more and more, while Tokiko’s health keeps decreasing.

A quick read with a light atmosphere but leaves you feeling heavy at the end. Perhaps, it can make you ask yourself philosophical questions about life and death… And what else to say, I appreciate a book which masters to evoke you into its atmosphere and makes you ask questions.

While I didn’t hate the characters, I couldn’t grow to like them much. None of them stuck with me, to some i didn’t know what to feel. But the most unfortunate part was the ending if you can even call it that. The shortness of the book is one of its strengths as well as its weaknesses, as it seems that the author just abandoned his book in the middle of the plot.

Fast pace, short sentences, some say he has obvious inspiration in Yasunao Kawataba. Honestly, a perfect find for my fascination with fast-paced and short sentences.

I’d say it is a book for special occasions when you feel a very particular emotion. The book starts off very light-hearted and even comedy-like, but its second half keeps getting heavier and heavier. In my opinion, it has an unfairly low rating, but this book isn’t one you’d want to purchase for your bookshelves nor in your to-be-read-next list, as your expectations won’t be fulfilled.

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

story was fine, a japanese man who has a difficult relationship with his wife. the premise i thought could’ve led to some interesting plot lines or at least characters, but nothing was specifically special about this book. nothing stood out, the characters were alright, and the ending was also so abrupt and strange, it just didn’t fit at all.

3/5.

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kojima's writing style -- short, blunt, and obviously indebted to Kawabata -- struck me as off-putting at first, but I quickly grew accustomed to it. This is an interesting little novel, but its abrupt and mystifying ending left me feeling stupid.

[Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Семья Мива"

[Isaac Grolnic-McClurg · Rating 3 out of 5]

They are taking our woman

[Illa P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Преходът си е преход. Някои неща са се променили изведнъж, рязко и неизбежно. Други се трансформират малко по малко, бавно и почти неусетно. След 20 години вече си "на попрището жизнено в средата", започнала е кризата на средната възраст, нищо не е същото - нито със света, нито със семейството, нито с теб самия.
А преди двадесет години си знаел какво те очаква. Знаел си накъде вървят нещата. Учил си за това и си учил другите. Но днес, като се озърнеш, все едно си попаднал в някакъв паралелен свят. Нищо не разбираш - защо се случи така? Къде сбърках? Кой е виновен?
Нека се разберем. Не става дума за България`2009, а за Япония`1965. След края на Втората световна война американските войски окупират островната държава. Пишат нова конституция. Променят изоснови политическата и правна система. Икономиката е в много тежко положение - след двадесет години преход тепърва започва това, което по-късно се нарича "японско икономическо чудо". Новите закони и обществени отношения няма как да не се отразят и върху личния живот на хората. Повсеместно е усещането за рушене на изконните ценности, на загуба на ориентири, на невъзможност да се определи кое е добро и кое - зло.
За Нобуо Коджима това става основна тема в творчеството. В средата на 30-те години на ХХ в. в две последователни години губи баща си и по-големия си брат. Губи хората, на които, според тогавашните обичаи, би могъл да разчита. През 1938 г. записва английска филология във възможно най-престижния Токийски императорски университет. Завършва го през 1941 г. като защищава теза върху творчеството на У. Такъри ("Панаир на суетата"). Става учител по английски в частно училище. И ето ти я войната. Излиза, че е посветил живота си на езика на врага. Отива на фронта. След капитулацията, в края на 50-те специализира в САЩ. Вече е университетски преподавател.
Изучава Достоевски, Гогол, Кафка.
Съпругата му, с която са заедно от първата си студентска година, умира от рак през 1963 г. На следващата година се жени втори път. А след още година, през 1965 г., излиза романът "Hōyō kazoku" ("Embracing Family", "Семейный круг"/"Семья Мива"). През 1970 г. този роман получава току-що учредената награда "Танизаки", чиито лауреати в следващите години стават нобеловите лауреати Кензабуро Ое и Кобо Абе, както и Фумико Енчи и Ейми Ямада.
Първият превод на романа излиза в САЩ двадесет години по-късно - през 1985 г., а вторият - след още около двадесет, през януари 2006 г. През октомври на същата 2006 г. Нобуо Коджима напуска този свят.
Главният герой на романа Шунсуке Мива е университетски преподавател по американска литература, специализирал е в САЩ, чете лекции на тема "Семейството в другите страни". А собственото му семейство се руши и той не разбира защо. Съпрузите не умеят да говорят помежду си. В традиционното японско семейство няма нужда да разговарят чак толкова - всеки си знае мястото и задълженията. Сега всичко е друго, никой не е мястото си: прислужничката вместо да си гледа работата, разнася клюки и се изживява като регулировчик в емоционалните движения на родители и деца. Мъжът осъзнава, че в новите условия ролята на съпруга като семеен господар се е изчерпала, пък и той не ламти за власт. Но така и не успява да разбере какво в тези променени условия се очаква от него. Да върне младостта на жена си, по-възрастна от него с няколко години? Да спаси живота й след като разбира, че е болна от рак? Да убие младия й американски любовник? Да й прости? Да спре сина си - тийнейджър, който иска да опита сам да се оправя в живота? Да опази, доколкото е възможно, дъщеричката си от стреса на този нов живот, който самият той не разбира?
А новото място, новата къща, която се надява, че ще закрепи разяжданото отвътре и отвън семейство, е модерна, но негодна за живот - японският климатик отказва да работи, а по американски проектираният покрив протича при всеки дъжд. Шунсуке се гневи на всички, импотентността му е не толкова физически, колкото интелектуален проблем. Токико - съпругата му, умира. Рьоичи - синът му, напуска дома. Скоро това ще направи и дъщеричката Норико. Крайно време е да изгони слугинята Мичийо.
Кой знае дали това ще реши проблемите.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Set just after World War II in Japan, the novel explores the western influence in Japan and the dynamics of a struggling family, the Miwas. Shunsuke and Tokiko’s marriage is failing and the revelation that Tokiko had an affair with an American soldier simply adds to the confusion. Their children, son Ryoichi and daughter Noriko, are lost in the shuffle. Couple that with Tokiko’s obsession with all things western, various houseguests, the construction of a new home and a breast cancer diagnosis, and you’ve got quite a lot sandwiched into this 161 page novel.

Embracing Family has a lot going on, but I can’t say I was that enthralled with the story. I didn’t care for any of the characters – Tokiko was so aggressive, dismissive and just mean, that I wasn’t routing for her. Shunsuke was so meek and pathetic that I didn’t care when Tokiko (and everyone else in the book) picked on him.

One of Kojima’s major themes is the western influence on Japan and its people. Set immediately after World War II and written in 1965, Kojima’s commentary on the situation is clear. Tokiko is enamored of western culture – in fact she even has an affair with an American soldier and demands the family’s home be constructed in a western style. Shunsuke spends much of the novel mourning the loss of his family as he knew it and working to restore order to the home. Kojima’s choice of characterization is interesting – Tokiko, the “westernised” character, is aggressive and unlikeable and fights an unwinning battle with breast cancer, while Shunsuke, the conservative, traditional Japanese character, is a meek pushover who can’t stand up to his domineering wife. Hmmmm wonder how Kojima felt about the westernization of Japan

[هشام · Rating 3 out of 5]

أول رواية يابانية أقرؤها، وهي للروائي والأديب المعروف نوبو كوجيما.

تتمحور أحداثها حول العلاقة المضطربة بين رب أسرة ياباني وزوجته توكيكو؛ بداية بفتور علاقتهما وتبرم الزوجة الدائم من زوجها، وعلاقتها مع ضيفهما الأمريكي، وانتقالهما إلى منزل على طر��ز غربي، وأخيرا مرضها وموتها. ثم ما بعد موت الزوجة وعلاقة الزوج والأب الياباني بابنه وابنته، وصعوبة التأقلم مع فقدان الزوجة والأم.

تبدو الرواية دون معرفة الظروف التاريخية التي كتبت فيها ودون التفكير في رمزيتها سطحية جدا وليس فيها حبكة. ولكن بمعرفة أن الرواية صدرت بعد الحرب العالمية الثانية (سنة 1965) وما تبعها من تغيرات كبيرة في المجتمع الياباني، وبالتفكير برمزية القصة وإسقاطاتها على المجتمع في ذلك الحين فإن أغواراً أعمق تتبدى لمن يريد سبرها وفهمها..

لن أعلق على لغة الرواية فهي ترجمة عن ترجمة. وأعتقد أن تجربة قراءتها باللغة اليابانية، التي أتمنى أن أقرأها بها يوما من الأيام، ستكون أمتع وتعطى فهما وحسا أقرب لما أراد المؤلف إيصاله للقارئ.

ملاحظة * عنوان الرواية هو "عناق الأُسْرَة" وليس "الأَسِرَّة" .. وذلك أن الأمر التبس علي قبل أن أقرأ الرواية

[Veronika KaoruSaionji · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this story!
Hero is married professor and has good wife, two bright teenage children (older boy and young girl) and mistress (which he doesn´t love - because all good Japanese men have one). :o) His wife is unhappy and cheats on him openly with young American soldier. Hero is furious, slapps her, but he abandons his mistress and care for his wife. He made new "dream" house for her. But she becomes ill, she has carcer, and he cares for her very much and tenderly. He is in love with her again - or for first time? But she dies and he is very sad. But he must care for their children and this is new important thing for his life...
He values his family only when he is in danger of losing it. But this danger makes his life more full. Former humbly, tender and obedient wife is nothing for him. He needs to fight for his love... And his family.

[Ajona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apres la guerre, avec une presence americaine toujours d'actualite, un traducteur d'anglais voit son 'cercle de famille' perturbe, voire dissolu. L'infidelite, supposee? averee?, de sa femme avec un jeune americain, puis son deces apres un cancer laissent le narrateur en perte de reperes. A travers de cette construction, deconstruction et recontrusction de son cercle familial, notamment en batissant une nouvelle demeure, le recit nous delivre un quotidien japonais d'apres guerre.
Il est malheureux, toutefois, que la lecture en soit assez difficile compte tenu d'un style souvent laconique, voire elliptique (un style japonais difficile a traduire en francais?).