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Somersault
The first new novel Oe has published since winning the Nobel Prize, Somersault is a magnificent story of the charisma of leaders, the danger of zealotry, and the mystery of faith.
A decade before the story opens, two men referred to as the Patron and Guide of mankind were leaders of an influential religious movement. When a radical faction of their followers threatened to unleash an apocalypse, they recanted all of their teachings and abandoned their followers. Now, after ten years of silence, Patron and Guide begin contacting their old followers and reaching out to the public, assisted by a small group of young people who have come to them in recent months.
Just as they are beginning this renewed push, the radical faction kidnaps Guide, holding him captive until his health gives out. Patron and a small core of the faithful, including a painter named Kizu who may become the new Guide, move to the mountains to establish the church’s new base, followed by two groups from Patron’s old the devout Quiet Women, and the Technicians, who have ties to the old radical faction. The Baby Fireflies, young men from a nearby village, attempt to influence the church with local traditions and military discipline. As planning proceeds for the summer conference that will bring together the faithful and launch the new church in the eyes of the world, the conflicting agendas of these factions threaten to make a mockery of the church’s unity—or something far more dangerous.
A decade before the story opens, two men referred to as the Patron and Guide of mankind were leaders of an influential religious movement. When a radical faction of their followers threatened to unleash an apocalypse, they recanted all of their teachings and abandoned their followers. Now, after ten years of silence, Patron and Guide begin contacting their old followers and reaching out to the public, assisted by a small group of young people who have come to them in recent months.
Just as they are beginning this renewed push, the radical faction kidnaps Guide, holding him captive until his health gives out. Patron and a small core of the faithful, including a painter named Kizu who may become the new Guide, move to the mountains to establish the church’s new base, followed by two groups from Patron’s old the devout Quiet Women, and the Technicians, who have ties to the old radical faction. The Baby Fireflies, young men from a nearby village, attempt to influence the church with local traditions and military discipline. As planning proceeds for the summer conference that will bring together the faithful and launch the new church in the eyes of the world, the conflicting agendas of these factions threaten to make a mockery of the church’s unity—or something far more dangerous.
576 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
45 people are currently reading
842 people want to read
About the author
Kenzaburō Ōe
237 books1,683 followersKenzaburō Ōe (大江 健三郎) was a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His works, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, engages with political, social and philosophical issues including nuclear weapons, social non-conformism and existentialism.
Ōe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994 for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today."
Ōe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994 for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
November 20, 2007
I’m having a very hard time with this review and it should not be reviewed dryly. Who Oe is doesn’t matter, or where he’s from or where this lies beside his previous works, or who the autistic musician or self terrified surgeon with the suicidal mother is. This is not a book to review from historical context.
You can. Religion, Japan by train, effigies, beer and whiskey beside saki, the desperate shame of a man dying of cancer tearfully pulling himself up to the first and only penis he’ll ever have inside him. Who is Patron, who is Guide, why the primary characters have so little to do with the God they’re parading around, what was the goal, was Jonah Yonah – these aren’t answered. And they stagger on a wrought stage of soliloquies, snowy boughs, a man’s stomach in the sun and improbabilities and farces.
The book is impossible. There is one dash, one interpretation in a book with page long monologues outnumbering one-liners. Then what’s going on here? I’ve told you before this is not the question. It is troubling, the sonorous seamlessness, the inexcusable boredom of reading this book. It is unforgivable.
But I read this and, yes, it is the snowy boughs, the half parted mouth, the hungry man pulling apart his ass as colon cancer pulls at his stool. That’s what it is. Yes, I’ve said, there’s more, if you need it. But don’t look for it. It will do you no good to compare wounds of absence and excess, repetitive Giis, or feudal Yakuzas in the guise of repentance. It is there. But it’s not what you get or what stays.
What sticks is the atmosphere, the ineffable. I know that sounds above. I’m sounding like Kizu maybe, or anyone really, lost in this book that’s so clear and so empty, so vast. There are pockets and small findings, dips in the savannah.
You’re right. I’m not clear. Let me be, then. It’s a difficult book to read because it’s boring and frustrating when no one responds in conversation as people do. Explanations and backstory are stumbled on like logs in tall grass and the story resembles so little a story. It sprawls slowly, thinly, with people who are real until they talk and places that are stronger than the people. Is this what he means when he discusses the ‘power of the place?’ I don’t know. I don’t think I need to know. Everything I need to know from this book, from Aum Shinrikyo to pianos and triptychs, is in the atmosphere, and the images that live beyond any of the rambles or the philosophy.
This book is a glacier – slow, clear, awesome, tedious and beautiful.
You can. Religion, Japan by train, effigies, beer and whiskey beside saki, the desperate shame of a man dying of cancer tearfully pulling himself up to the first and only penis he’ll ever have inside him. Who is Patron, who is Guide, why the primary characters have so little to do with the God they’re parading around, what was the goal, was Jonah Yonah – these aren’t answered. And they stagger on a wrought stage of soliloquies, snowy boughs, a man’s stomach in the sun and improbabilities and farces.
The book is impossible. There is one dash, one interpretation in a book with page long monologues outnumbering one-liners. Then what’s going on here? I’ve told you before this is not the question. It is troubling, the sonorous seamlessness, the inexcusable boredom of reading this book. It is unforgivable.
But I read this and, yes, it is the snowy boughs, the half parted mouth, the hungry man pulling apart his ass as colon cancer pulls at his stool. That’s what it is. Yes, I’ve said, there’s more, if you need it. But don’t look for it. It will do you no good to compare wounds of absence and excess, repetitive Giis, or feudal Yakuzas in the guise of repentance. It is there. But it’s not what you get or what stays.
What sticks is the atmosphere, the ineffable. I know that sounds above. I’m sounding like Kizu maybe, or anyone really, lost in this book that’s so clear and so empty, so vast. There are pockets and small findings, dips in the savannah.
You’re right. I’m not clear. Let me be, then. It’s a difficult book to read because it’s boring and frustrating when no one responds in conversation as people do. Explanations and backstory are stumbled on like logs in tall grass and the story resembles so little a story. It sprawls slowly, thinly, with people who are real until they talk and places that are stronger than the people. Is this what he means when he discusses the ‘power of the place?’ I don’t know. I don’t think I need to know. Everything I need to know from this book, from Aum Shinrikyo to pianos and triptychs, is in the atmosphere, and the images that live beyond any of the rambles or the philosophy.
This book is a glacier – slow, clear, awesome, tedious and beautiful.
November 28, 2021
I really understand why this book has low ratings, and while I would not say it is perfect or really the best example of Ōe’s work, I would say that this a great work that has so many ideas that make it worth its while.
Ōe is really amazing at showing how cycles of trauma (national, spiritual, and personal) can affect the way people live their loves and often find themselves in a cycle of their own subconscious making by repeating the actions of others.
He usually does this by interrogating his own life and making grotesque versions of himself in a humanistic examination of what ifs and maybes. It always makes his novels hard to sit with because his main characters are so often very toxic characters, but he finds a way to make them interesting (Bird in _A Personal Matter_, the racist villagers in “Agwee the Sea Monster,” and the feral children in _Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids_).
These personal interrogations are always standins or symbolic of national crises such as Japanese postwar identity or the spiritual struggle of post modernity. What i am really enjoying about _Somersault_ is how it really makes this cyclical motion of narrative and trauma but shows it on the grand scale. The cult and movement here is clearly based on Aum Shinrikyo and characters in the novel interrogate it as such by asking the spiritual leader Patron ”what is the difference if you both have apocalyptic visions of the future?” And more than just that, it also asks that of all religions such as the endtimes of Christianity or the concept of Buddhist rebirth. Can an endtimes be hastened or prevented by our unique actions or is it something that we can only have a reaction too? What use is spitirual awakening if it just ends with pain and suffering for all those around you?
I understand why someone might say this is not as good as Ōe’s previous novels (and honestly i would recommend those first to begin with), but I really loved this and what the characters had to say.
Ōe is really amazing at showing how cycles of trauma (national, spiritual, and personal) can affect the way people live their loves and often find themselves in a cycle of their own subconscious making by repeating the actions of others.
He usually does this by interrogating his own life and making grotesque versions of himself in a humanistic examination of what ifs and maybes. It always makes his novels hard to sit with because his main characters are so often very toxic characters, but he finds a way to make them interesting (Bird in _A Personal Matter_, the racist villagers in “Agwee the Sea Monster,” and the feral children in _Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids_).
These personal interrogations are always standins or symbolic of national crises such as Japanese postwar identity or the spiritual struggle of post modernity. What i am really enjoying about _Somersault_ is how it really makes this cyclical motion of narrative and trauma but shows it on the grand scale. The cult and movement here is clearly based on Aum Shinrikyo and characters in the novel interrogate it as such by asking the spiritual leader Patron ”what is the difference if you both have apocalyptic visions of the future?” And more than just that, it also asks that of all religions such as the endtimes of Christianity or the concept of Buddhist rebirth. Can an endtimes be hastened or prevented by our unique actions or is it something that we can only have a reaction too? What use is spitirual awakening if it just ends with pain and suffering for all those around you?
I understand why someone might say this is not as good as Ōe’s previous novels (and honestly i would recommend those first to begin with), but I really loved this and what the characters had to say.
December 14, 2012
Oe's magisterial novel tells the story of the rebirth of an extremist millennial church whose leaders had apparently abandoned the movement ten years earlier in a successful attempt to thwart terrorist activity by some of the church's most radical members. Widely criticized when the English translation came out in 2003 for its flat characterization and stilted style, patient readers will nonetheless find this a richly suggestive fantasy on post-war Japanese history filled with compelling situations and beautiful images. The reflective, often blandly sincere speeches and conversations that comprise much of the book do get tedious. But our cast is largely one of lost souls; restlessness is one of the book's themes; and the drama does build steadily to a powerful--though weird--climax. Oe’s execution is mostly a match for his vast ambition, and I’ll certainly be reading more of him—even if part of me thinks I should give this 3 ½ stars instead.
October 3, 2021
Los más talentosos suelen ser también los responsables de las mayores pifias.
June 11, 2022
(spoilers)
Wow! I have a lot to say about this, I might write a separate review or something. Instead of finding a condemnation of "New Religions" - what Somersault has is a deeply humane view of people who participate in such groups. What's more telling is the way in which Somersault's religious group is portrayed - as essentially just people talking with each other and forming meaning, trying to figure out why they're the way they are and how they want to live! Sure, in real life we might have MLM/scammy/sketchy religious groups, but Somersault seems to argue that in a well-meaning group, it's about the participants just trying to help each other get by.
The way in which the portrayal of the group in Somersault parallels all sorts of 'acceptable' social units - the family, workplaces, universities, fan groups, Discord servers, etc, was interesting. In any social relation we're prone to abuse, but there is also the potential for healing under the right efforts or leadership.
People with mental disabilities, physically scarred peoples, single women with their children, scientists with 'failed' careers, artists with cancer and more - each interacts with the church with their own motivations.
Some are there just because it's something to do. Some are hoping the religious activity will lead them to answers to deep-rooted childhood questions. Others claim they're looking for salvation - but practically speaking are just looking for a place to live in peace.
While most of the church's people would face isolation living in 'normal society', what they manage to pull off together in the rural villages, feels nothing short of amazing, even if their relations are filled with tension.
Somersault is a book about a New Religious group, but it also feels like a book about the various ways people can heal through the magic of social relations, and how that can coexist with the preservation of local histories and small-scale culture.
---
There's a lot more I could say, but I'll leave it at that Patron (co-founder of the church) is a deeply sympathetic and interesting character. Somersault is about many characters, but overall feels like it's about Patron even when it's not portraying him. He helped take his shattered religion and its lost followers, and rather than leaving his followers behind, manages to restore into something beneficial to society, a place where all these followers manage to fit in.
I feel like Oe definitely seems to have gotten kinder or mellow as he got older. The climax of the story, while tense, ultimately resolves and loosens through humor and quiet tragedy (rather than the... wild ending that was Silent Cry).
I also respect how he likes to bring so many of his stories back to his rural Japan hometown, and enjoyed the way he did it here. To me it feels like recognizing that the lives of people in Japan's margins - not the pop culture-making Tokyoites or politicians - are deeply valuable and worth caring about, especially in this era of aging populations and shrinking towns.
Wow! I have a lot to say about this, I might write a separate review or something. Instead of finding a condemnation of "New Religions" - what Somersault has is a deeply humane view of people who participate in such groups. What's more telling is the way in which Somersault's religious group is portrayed - as essentially just people talking with each other and forming meaning, trying to figure out why they're the way they are and how they want to live! Sure, in real life we might have MLM/scammy/sketchy religious groups, but Somersault seems to argue that in a well-meaning group, it's about the participants just trying to help each other get by.
The way in which the portrayal of the group in Somersault parallels all sorts of 'acceptable' social units - the family, workplaces, universities, fan groups, Discord servers, etc, was interesting. In any social relation we're prone to abuse, but there is also the potential for healing under the right efforts or leadership.
People with mental disabilities, physically scarred peoples, single women with their children, scientists with 'failed' careers, artists with cancer and more - each interacts with the church with their own motivations.
Some are there just because it's something to do. Some are hoping the religious activity will lead them to answers to deep-rooted childhood questions. Others claim they're looking for salvation - but practically speaking are just looking for a place to live in peace.
While most of the church's people would face isolation living in 'normal society', what they manage to pull off together in the rural villages, feels nothing short of amazing, even if their relations are filled with tension.
Somersault is a book about a New Religious group, but it also feels like a book about the various ways people can heal through the magic of social relations, and how that can coexist with the preservation of local histories and small-scale culture.
---
There's a lot more I could say, but I'll leave it at that Patron (co-founder of the church) is a deeply sympathetic and interesting character. Somersault is about many characters, but overall feels like it's about Patron even when it's not portraying him. He helped take his shattered religion and its lost followers, and rather than leaving his followers behind, manages to restore into something beneficial to society, a place where all these followers manage to fit in.
I feel like Oe definitely seems to have gotten kinder or mellow as he got older. The climax of the story, while tense, ultimately resolves and loosens through humor and quiet tragedy (rather than the... wild ending that was Silent Cry).
I also respect how he likes to bring so many of his stories back to his rural Japan hometown, and enjoyed the way he did it here. To me it feels like recognizing that the lives of people in Japan's margins - not the pop culture-making Tokyoites or politicians - are deeply valuable and worth caring about, especially in this era of aging populations and shrinking towns.
September 20, 2018
i enjoyed engaging with the analogy for spirituality/nationalism/subculture in a post-ww2 japan, but found it to be lacking in the empathy and profundity often found in Ōe's other work.
i also hope to happily navigate the rest of my life without reading another explanation of who/what/where/when the somersault was and how x/y/z feel about it.
i also hope to happily navigate the rest of my life without reading another explanation of who/what/where/when the somersault was and how x/y/z feel about it.
July 31, 2023
A story about the reemergence of a radical religious cult that had been away for ten years. They had been predicting the end of the world and had been saying it would end in two or three years but when that time passed without incident the movement folded in disgrace. The leaders of the cult were Guide and Patron who had been in hiding for ten years. Their prophecies were made when Patron would spout gibberish and Guide would interpret his words into noble sounding language. The tale is narrated, mostly, through the eyes of Ogi as he talks about the two leaders and their assistant Dancer, a young girl. It is a very long tiresome read that meandered for pages without really saying anything and could have easily been edited down. I'm a big fan of Kenzabuo Oe but I must admit I didn't enjoy this book.
July 31, 2025
Arduous yet compelling. The quality of the writing and the attention to detail in the work are incredible. The plot subtly unfolds in a manner that creates a serious investment in how far the reader has already come.
April 23, 2012
I liked this book, but it was super long. I think that the treatment of the subject of religion vs. spirituality was interesting, and the author did seem to paint a very vivid picture of the direction that religions can take (and how dangerous religious sects can be when so much of what is done in them is symbolic for different groups of people in different ways). The book did a good job of slowly involving the reader more and more into the back story of each character and filling out many of the characters that appeared through out the book in some more than simply flat presentation. Ultimately this book was a struggle for me, because much of the writing was a bit dry (never really lingering on events too long, but laboring in it's point a bit longer than I think it needed to). This book was a challenge for me to get through and did not grip my attention for long periods of time (until the last 100 pages or so which were interesting but would have been welcomed about 150 pages earlier). I would read another book by Oe, but not for a while. I can tell that he has a way with words that piqued my interest from time to time, but I can't say that would recommend this book to anyone for any particular reason or another.
December 22, 2016
I took forever to read this (as a quick reader) and found it terribly frustrating. It's beautiful and I still think of it regularly years later. I think I hate it and would highly recommend.
Hard work in many ways but I'd argue worth the effort.
Hard work in many ways but I'd argue worth the effort.
January 6, 2010
I also want to pick this one up again. This book is enthralling. Kenzaburo Oe is awesome.
February 28, 2016
Sadly, I struggled to enjoy this.
December 7, 2017
Just finished this challenging book. While describing a contemporary cult religion in Japan, a kind of Christianity, but definitely different culturally, Oe explores the Japan of today heavily influenced by non-Asian ideas. At the same time, as with Death by Water, the focus also contains the attachment to the land of indigenous Japanese religion. There are references to the kami right beside important elements of Jonah and the old Testament. Mix this with convincing homosexual and heterosexual relationships (including summer/winter), musical compositions by a young savant composer (familiar in Oe), trances, mass suicides turned ribald, and a visionary's last sermon quoting Dostoevsky. How the author keeps all this in the air becomes even more problematic with the levels of specific detail and repetition that he uses. One more note- I did not count the words, but well over half of this book is delivered in conversations between the characters. Though it is true that many times a person speaks at much greater length than a person normally would, that becomes a part of the way that repeated details become a theme of the book. Oe has one character explain this use of details: "We experience things without really knowing what they mean and how they'll end up, right? That being the case, all you can do is write down as much of what you saw and heard just as you experienced it. Maybe it's a case of God being in the details." Judged as whether it works as a novel by American readers, this book probably pushes too many borders for many. However, exploring ways contemporary Japan interacts with the contemporary world, this seems to be the most effective way to do that and fully explore the complex themes involved.
November 21, 2025
I had high hopes for this novel, having been written by a Nobel Prize winner. But there was so much repetition in the story that I just got tired reading it. I just wanted the author to get on with the story. It was entirely too long. I felt there were so many dead ends and questions for which no direct answers was given. I didn't relate to the characters. I didn't care for the selatious sex descriptions and felt they were only included to be titillating. Were they supposed to be a way to connect the physical and spiritual realms? Did I miss something in translation? Is there something I don't understand about Japanese culture? This book didn't encourage me to bother finding out. But knowing of Kenzaburo Oe's reputation, I'd give him another shot if any of his other works come my way.
February 27, 2022
This book hurt. I felt upset and confused, more and more so as I read it. I just remembered reading it and how thoroughly it befuddled me.
Noted here, with this brief review, to encourage myself to reread it. Rarely do I read a work of fiction then just put it from my mind like that. Was it the book or my personal state of being as I read the book? Usually it is an interaction of the two which cause an intense reaction such as I had.
Take this as a recommendation. One particularly important professor of mine said that great art disturbs us. This author disturbs me. This particular book very much so!
Noted here, with this brief review, to encourage myself to reread it. Rarely do I read a work of fiction then just put it from my mind like that. Was it the book or my personal state of being as I read the book? Usually it is an interaction of the two which cause an intense reaction such as I had.
Take this as a recommendation. One particularly important professor of mine said that great art disturbs us. This author disturbs me. This particular book very much so!
January 5, 2024
First novel after winning Nobel Prize!
Very involved description and action of cult leaders - the Patron, the Guide et al.
Some gratuitous sex scenes (Oe!) but overall, the first 500 pages were excellent with the exception of one problematical death.
But, for me, the ending was sophomoric and extremely disappointing. Just read up to page 500.
Very involved description and action of cult leaders - the Patron, the Guide et al.
Some gratuitous sex scenes (Oe!) but overall, the first 500 pages were excellent with the exception of one problematical death.
But, for me, the ending was sophomoric and extremely disappointing. Just read up to page 500.
November 4, 2020
Un libro aparte, muy diferente, difícil de acceso pero no sin interés.
Alterna momentos muy intensos y bien escritos con pasajes muy largos y tediosos.
Me dejo un sabor agridulce al terminar de leerlo.
Alterna momentos muy intensos y bien escritos con pasajes muy largos y tediosos.
Me dejo un sabor agridulce al terminar de leerlo.
April 7, 2023
For my favorite work by my favorite author, it is hard to put into words just how much I love this book and why exactly that is. Oe's recent passing has definitely had me reflecting on his life, and I think I've managed to sum up exactly what it is that I like about Somersault.
This is far from being Kenzaburo Oe's most popular book. There is no doubt that part of the reason for that is the thickness of the book. It is nearly 600 pages long, and it doesn't flow particularly quickly. When I found a second-hand copy of it at the book store by my house, I excitedly picked it up. It was the first physical work of Oe I had actually seen, and I had been particularly interested in this one. That being said, I was not really aware of what I was getting into. This was basically my foray back into reading, and this was quite the way to do it. My dad actually read from my copy first but gave it back after twenty minutes because he thought it was boring.
When I began reading it, I was also not aware of how graphic it was. I was in a public space when reading it and quickly turned red after seeing "painfully erect" followed by a description of masturbation. But once I got over that hill of being uncomfortable, I saw how beautifully written this book is. It embellishes the smallest details of life, and it feels more real because of that. We as humans tend to notice more about our environments than we would normally write about. Even if that takes away from the "action," I don't care. There's something so fascinating about hearing this objective standpoint about the world around this ensemble of characters.
Morio was an interesting character as well because of how little he seemed to matter. I had initially guessed him to be a throwaway reference to Hikari, but he made such an impact on the story because of how he took the mantle of Guide from Kizu. Despite this, the largely rational characters react to this with praise instead of disdain. Kizu still paints the triptych that becomes one of the biggest symbols in the story.
I also love the relationship between Patron and Guide, even though we don't really see much of them together. They are both humble despite their large followings. In many of the bigger new religions, the founders will claim that they are the Messiah, but this is purposefully subverted. The mentions of casting away the names of Savior and Prophet show me how they do not want to be like Aum Shinrikyo, a big inspiration for this book.
To me, it is clear that Patron and Guide, despite their kind natures, were both manipulating each other without the other knowing. This is far more clear with Guide. At first, Patron appears to be a sad, unwell man suffering from schizophrenia. Guide is simply using this to his advantage. Guide knows he can manipulate this man at his lowest point to spread his own world view. However, Patron is more cunning than he lets on. It seems that he would provide information that could intentionally influence Guide in one direction. Incredible to me.
Beyond those two, this book is the only media I have ever consumed with a queer main character that is not about being queer or corny as hell. Kizu and Ikuo are well written characters who, despite being a bit toxic, care for each other. Neither of them are ever particularly frowned upon for their homosexuality. This is even more shocking considering the book is over 20 years old. I believe the reason that their perspectives are so good is because Oe himself was queer. Bird in A Personal Matter also briefly fantasizes about going on a date with a homosexual crossdresser he meets on the street, and considering Bird is based on Oe, I don't think it's too farfetched to say that Oe may have gone both ways. I am honestly very surprised that I haven't seen more talk about that.
I suppose that's all I have to say on that matter. All of my favorite books are mildly blasphemous religious-inspired fiction, and this is one of the most clear examples of that.
This is far from being Kenzaburo Oe's most popular book. There is no doubt that part of the reason for that is the thickness of the book. It is nearly 600 pages long, and it doesn't flow particularly quickly. When I found a second-hand copy of it at the book store by my house, I excitedly picked it up. It was the first physical work of Oe I had actually seen, and I had been particularly interested in this one. That being said, I was not really aware of what I was getting into. This was basically my foray back into reading, and this was quite the way to do it. My dad actually read from my copy first but gave it back after twenty minutes because he thought it was boring.
When I began reading it, I was also not aware of how graphic it was. I was in a public space when reading it and quickly turned red after seeing "painfully erect" followed by a description of masturbation. But once I got over that hill of being uncomfortable, I saw how beautifully written this book is. It embellishes the smallest details of life, and it feels more real because of that. We as humans tend to notice more about our environments than we would normally write about. Even if that takes away from the "action," I don't care. There's something so fascinating about hearing this objective standpoint about the world around this ensemble of characters.
Morio was an interesting character as well because of how little he seemed to matter. I had initially guessed him to be a throwaway reference to Hikari, but he made such an impact on the story because of how he took the mantle of Guide from Kizu. Despite this, the largely rational characters react to this with praise instead of disdain. Kizu still paints the triptych that becomes one of the biggest symbols in the story.
I also love the relationship between Patron and Guide, even though we don't really see much of them together. They are both humble despite their large followings. In many of the bigger new religions, the founders will claim that they are the Messiah, but this is purposefully subverted. The mentions of casting away the names of Savior and Prophet show me how they do not want to be like Aum Shinrikyo, a big inspiration for this book.
To me, it is clear that Patron and Guide, despite their kind natures, were both manipulating each other without the other knowing. This is far more clear with Guide. At first, Patron appears to be a sad, unwell man suffering from schizophrenia. Guide is simply using this to his advantage. Guide knows he can manipulate this man at his lowest point to spread his own world view. However, Patron is more cunning than he lets on. It seems that he would provide information that could intentionally influence Guide in one direction. Incredible to me.
Beyond those two, this book is the only media I have ever consumed with a queer main character that is not about being queer or corny as hell. Kizu and Ikuo are well written characters who, despite being a bit toxic, care for each other. Neither of them are ever particularly frowned upon for their homosexuality. This is even more shocking considering the book is over 20 years old. I believe the reason that their perspectives are so good is because Oe himself was queer. Bird in A Personal Matter also briefly fantasizes about going on a date with a homosexual crossdresser he meets on the street, and considering Bird is based on Oe, I don't think it's too farfetched to say that Oe may have gone both ways. I am honestly very surprised that I haven't seen more talk about that.
I suppose that's all I have to say on that matter. All of my favorite books are mildly blasphemous religious-inspired fiction, and this is one of the most clear examples of that.
September 30, 2017
Perhaps not the right Oe to start with.
Meandering, almost tedious, yet oddly compelling throughout.
And every once in a while there'll be a scene of such incredible power that I'm done and have to stop for the day.
An update, three months afterwards:
I finished this a few months back but it's still bothering me.
The dialogue was painfully sincere but oddly bland, the conversations and events had a weird internal logic that I rarely had access to, people changed their minds based on empty comments- in fact they found those comments revelatory, powerful emotions happened but somehow divorced from the person expressing them, no one acted like a real person but they still felt like real people, I didn't understand their religious ideology at all, the book was interminable but I couldn't put it down
And I still cant stop thinking about it
Oe what have you done to me?
Meandering, almost tedious, yet oddly compelling throughout.
And every once in a while there'll be a scene of such incredible power that I'm done and have to stop for the day.
An update, three months afterwards:
I finished this a few months back but it's still bothering me.
The dialogue was painfully sincere but oddly bland, the conversations and events had a weird internal logic that I rarely had access to, people changed their minds based on empty comments- in fact they found those comments revelatory, powerful emotions happened but somehow divorced from the person expressing them, no one acted like a real person but they still felt like real people, I didn't understand their religious ideology at all, the book was interminable but I couldn't put it down
And I still cant stop thinking about it
Oe what have you done to me?
July 10, 2007
One of the more frustrating books I've ever read. This is hardly a story of a cult, hardly a story of "the human spirit" nor of repentance. There's bits of those things in there, but nothing stuck out in this book of interest to me. Dialogue, which is almost the entire book, is non-realist, banal and constantly focused on describing past events, relationships, etc. with a detatched air. The characters are emotionally flattened, the "cult activities" described are (and I don't mean this figuratively) like being at a board meeting, and what little glint of transcendence comes through is often cliche and shallow. Oe isn't a bad writer, and the story could've been engaging, if only it was given a little life. Some positive reviews I've come across suggest that the book is lifeless to evoke a meditative, somber tone. Possibly, but "boring" works well enough for me.
April 21, 2011
This was a very different read. Oe tackles the issues of current day religion, philosophy and ethics with beauty and grace. His characters are unique and interesting to unravel. Although the piece is large and dense, it is a rewarding read. Somersault is my first encounter with a Japanese author. Oe won the nobel prize for literature in 1994.
A quote near the end I re-read a few times: "Is it really so bad that you can't hear God's voice? You don't need God's voice, do you? People should be free."
A quote near the end I re-read a few times: "Is it really so bad that you can't hear God's voice? You don't need God's voice, do you? People should be free."
January 10, 2013
Moves pretty quickly for what is a very slow build of a book. It has sort of a lulling, meditative pace and most of the action comes in short bursts around lengthy dialogues that are sometimes sermons and parables and sometimes just read like sermons and parables. My sense is that this book conveys a kind of equivocal philosophical state that I am too unfocused to truly appreciate. Some fine dialogue and shades of Murakami in the weirder moments if you're into that sort of thing.
June 7, 2009
Oe, in his breadth of ideas, and in the way he develops character, is in league with the likes of Dostoevsky and Thomas Mann. His clear, mature intelligence is suitable for this story of how people frame their lives in relation to each other, to notions of love and memory, and to a disquiet pursuit of something more.
Read
August 14, 2010THIS IS PROBABLY THE STRANGEST BOOK AROUND BUT TOTALLY CAPTIVATING IN THE WAY IT DELVES INTO THE MYSTERIES OF INNER LIFE AND SPIRIT...VERY DIFFICULT TO SLOG THROUGH,HOWEVER, BECAUSE OF LONG PASSAGES THAT OTHERS FIND REDUDANT THO I HAVE NOT MINDED THEM AT ALL
November 18, 2015
me alegro haber leído el post underground de murakami ( siento que ayuda a tener una idea más clara de los creyentes de la secta ) antes del salto mortal. lectura densa y tortuosa ( por partes ) pero que muestra , y esto lo digo personalmente, la cicatriz que significó el atentado de aum.
Currently reading
June 14, 2007Kenzarburo Oe, a Pulitzer prize winning author, has a knack for terse, precise language.
November 5, 2007
Extremely slow read, but worthwhile if you're at all interested in the Aum Shinrikyo incident or new religion movements in Japan.
Want to read
December 1, 2007pas fini
never-finished-reading-it
August 10, 2008Reluctantly moving this to the never-finished shelf. Enjoying it, but a combination of its occasional tediousness and my overwhelming reading list for the upcoming school year make it necessary.
February 18, 2008
That patience is a virtue - and on long trips even big novels can get boring....
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