地下鉄に乗って

by Jirō Asada

永田町の地下鉄駅の階段を上がると、そこは30年前の風景。ワンマンな父に反発し自殺した兄が現れた。さらに満州に出征する父を目撃し、また戦後闇市で精力的に商いに励む父に出会う。だが封印された“過去”に行ったため……。思わず涙がこぼれ落ちる感動の浅田ワールド。吉川英治文学新人賞に輝く名作。

Genres: Japanese Literature

271 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 1994

About the author

Jirō Asada (浅田 次郎, born December 13, 1951 in Tokyo) is the pen name of Kōjirō Iwato (岩戸 康次郎), a Japanese writer.

Inspired by Yukio Mishima, who tried to stage a coup d'état among Japan Self-Defense Forces then committed suicide after the coup was failed, Asada enlisted in the SDF after finishing his studies. He changed jobs many times while endeavoring to find writing opportunities, submitting his works to literary competitions.

In 1991, his novel Torarete tamaruka! (とられてたまるか!) started his literary career. After writing several picaresque novels, his novel Metro ni notte (地下鉄に乗って) was awarded the Eiji Yoshikawa Prize for New Writers and made into a 2006 film; a short story collection The Stationmaster and other stories (Poppoya (鉄道員)) was also awarded the Naoki Prize.

He writes not only standard fiction and picaresque novels, but also writes historical and Chinese historical novels such as The Firmament of the Pleiades (Sōkyū no subaru, 蒼穹の昴).

Reviews

[Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

父と反発した兄の自殺した地下鉄に大人になった主人公がいる。その地下鉄でタイムスリップをしていくうちに、これまで知られざる父の過去に触れていく物語。

親も私と同じ人間で苦労しているんだということを私は本書から改めて学んだ。社会人になって、働く大変さを知って親を尊敬した。加えて、自分とは異なる時代を生きてきた力強い母には感謝しかない。そんな素敵な母のもとに、生れた自分は本当に幸せものだなぁ。自分が親になっても、母のように、また本書の母のように、自分の幸せではなく、子供/パートナーの幸せを一番に思える人になりたい。

[Corra · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've seen something you thought you shouldn't be seeing, it must be because it has to be seen by yourself anyways.

[Rickie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked it up at a bookstore just by looking at the title. It ended up really interesting read.