Ghosts

by Morio Kita, Dennis Keene (Translator)

The lingering existence of his mother's and sister's spirits shape the narrator's entire coming-of-age experience as he struggles to overcome his obsession with the past. By the author of The House of Nire.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Fiction, Japan, Historical

193 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Morio Kita was the pen name of Japanese novelist, essayist, and psychiatrist, Sokichi Saitō. He attended Azabu High School, Matsumoto Higher School (now part of Shinshu University) and graduated from Tohoku University's School of Medicine.
He initially worked as a doctor at Keio University Hospital. Motivated by the collections of his father's poems and the books of German author Thomas Mann, he decided to become a novelist.
He is the father of the essayist Yuka Saitō.

Reviews

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A men contemplates his life during four points in his life. The first of the four parts was the most interesting with each successive parts losing my interest a bit more.

[L.S. Popovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Morio Kita wrote this book and House of Nire, which is much longer. Ghosts is a good introduction to his singular style. It is very mellifluent, and not a chore to read. You could call the plot slow, or even glacial, but what matters is the accumulation of details, which is immense. Even though this is an average-length novel, and a typical first-person bildungsroman, there are a lot of unique perspectives, like a shifting kaleidoscope, offered by the gradually maturing narrator. The narrator is as concerned with insects and butterflies as about the terrible deaths of the people around him.
To give you an idea of the extended metaphors and exquisite tension in the book, here is my favorite passage:

I often thought, when I was small, how I would at last be accepted by people when I was grown up, too, but now I was actually approaching that age my sense of alienation from them all became, if anything, even deeper. Trying to ignore the heaviness in my head, I walked faster, feeling like a puppet under somebody's else's control. I remembered having this feeling once before. It was like a child flying a kite, so passionately absorbed in it that he goes on until the light begins to fade, even though he's terrified of the dark. The kite is about as big as he is, and the cold wind tugs at his collar; and then he notices the world about him and begins to drag down the kite, floating high up in the sky. With one eye on the darkness gradually closing in, he feverishly winds and winds the string. The string tangles, caught perhaps in the withered grass of the wide field, but he goes on winding and winding without end, and the string keeps appearing endlessly out of the surrounding dark. He bites his lip to hold back the tears and he keeps on winding, urgently, despairingly, almost as if the string were moving him. And I felt the same thing now, when all that mattered was to keep on moving, moving one's arms and legs.

By sinking in with this novel, you will gain a sense of impending death, which surrounds the main character like a dark fog. Due to the similarities between this work and the setting of The House of Nire, I think it is safe to conclude that they are both to some degree autobiographical. If you like Anaiis Nin, you will get some of the same feeling from immersing yourself in this book. I would rank this book very highly and greatly look forward to embarking on reading the monolithic House of Nire soon.

[Joanne Fate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate to give any Japanese fiction less than 4 stars. but I never really enjoyed this. I believe that I've read at least one other book by Morio Kita that I found very good. I wanted to care about the main character, but found him moderately likeable. Usually the wartime and postwar angst is evident, but despite the sadness of his background, I never developed a deep empathy for him. It is well written, but it was not for me.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eerie, dream-like story about a post-WWII Japanese youth going back through faded memories of growing up while the story also continues through his present to a climax where... well... wont spoil it, but I really liked what Kita does. There were moments where the writing felt a little poor, too abstruse for me.