Muerte por agua

by Kenzaburō Ōe

A los diez años de la muerte de su madre, la hermana de Kogito Choko, escritor de renombre internacional y álter ego de Kenzaburo Oé, le hace entrega del «baúl de cuero rojo». Este baúl contiene correspondencia del padre de Kogito, ferviente defensor del imperialismo japonés, que murió ahogado años atrás. Con la intención de descubrir qué alberga el misterioso baúl, Kogito parte a su tierra natal, Shikoku, en el bosque. Allí quiere emprender la redacción de la Novela del ahogado, una obra que le ha obsesionado toda su vida.

Genres: Japan, Fiction, Japanese Literature, Nobel Prize, Literary Fiction, Asia, Asian Literature

440 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Kenzaburō 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."

Reviews

[Jim Fonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

In many of this author’s novels he uses a literary alter ego – an author of his age (early 70’s in this book) who has a brain-damaged son (as does the author). In his older years, looking for a topic for his final novel, the writer returns to his sister’s house in his home village to look through documents. The documents are in a suitcase and supposedly they relate to his father’s last actions prior to his death.



Right after the end of WW II his father hosted at his home a group of ex-soldiers who were angry at Japan’s surrender. While they worshiped the emperor they also discussed wild plans to kill him by stealing a plane and bombing the palace. Why would a group of emperor-worshippers want to kill the Emperor? In the way of classical myth: that of ‘killing the living God’ as a way of bringing rebirth and prosperity to a country.” Death and regeneration are linked.

The writer really wants to tell the story of his father’s fatal drowning. Why did he go out in a small boat during a torrential storm and into a raging river?

While the writer is examining the contents of the suitcase he works on play scripts with a group of actors: an avant-garde theater troupe, young men and women. The troupe has dramatized his earlier novels. It seems a bit of a stretch to see how much they revere him and hang on his every spoken and written word. The troupe is gaining fame for its use of theatrical ploys such as ‘tossing dead dogs,’ which involves the audience in pelting the actors with stuffed animals.

Since the author in the book constantly dreams the same dream of helping his father push off the boat prior to his drowning, dreams are a big part of the story. “…the big question seems to be whether your dream is based on something you actually experienced, or whether you first dreamed about the scene you described, then came to believe it actually happened and, later on, began to dream about it again in a new and different form.”

It’s also a story of family stresses. The writer has had a fragile relationship with his mother and sister for ten years. His mother banned him from seeing the suitcase because she thought he revealed family secrets and disgraced the family in one of his novels.

Meanwhile the author in the book has also seen his relationship with his brain-damaged son deteriorate. The son will hardly speak to his father after his father called him an ‘idiot’ – twice over the same minor incident. His son is 45 and while he needs help in physical tasks such as dressing, he is a savant in music and has even had some compositions produced. His relationship with his wife is also deteriorating because of his unwillingness to patch things up with his son.

A good part of the novel is in the form of letters from his sister to him while the author is living in Tokyo.

The ending also seems to me to be a stretch. A young woman is going to stage a play about rape and possibly implicate her uncle in her own rape. Her uncle was a high-level national education official, now retired. A group of men kidnap the woman, the writer and his son so that the play can’t be staged. I don’t know anything about Japanese law, but It seems farfetched that the legal difficulties from a rape years ago could outweigh the implications of kidnapping multiple people. Indeed two people end up dead after this escapade.

So, a good story although I did find it a bit repetitive in places – we must have read about his dream six or eight times and there seems a bit much on the performances by the troupe. And, as I mentioned some things seem to be a stretch – the adoration with which the troupe holds the author and the near-fantasy ending. And I thought it dragged a bit in places – but all in all a good story with good writing, so I rounded it up to a 4.



The author (1935- ) won the Nobel Prize in 1994. Here are links to my reviews of other books by Kenzaburō Ōe:

The Changeling

The Silent Cry

A Personal Matter

Photo of Japanese theater from wikipedia commons
Photo of the author from qt.azureedge.net/resources/authors

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Update — I read this book years ago and still remember how I felt: AFFECTED! I just learned minutes ago that
the author Kenzaburo Oe has died.
I still have a couple of his other books that I have not read.
Sounds like a good time to read more of Oe’s work.


Rest in peace Kenzaburo!!!


Old review:

Kogito Choko was called Kogii when he was a child. He grew up along the river, (a proficient swimmer), .....in 'A Forest House' with his parents and sister, Asa, in the town of Shikoku... surrounded by friends, relations, and community.
He attended Tokyo University as a literature major. Thinking at the time he would become a French literature scholar....
It was his mother who planted the seed saying..."if he can't find a regular job, then he'll most likely become a novelists!"
His mother had made a joke saying, "there's more than enough raw material for a novel in the red leather trunk alone!"

"The fact that Papa felt the need to fill the red leather trunk with all the papers pertaining to the
insurrection seems to indicate that he thought those materials were too important (or too
incriminating) to leave behind. It's as if he felt it would be disastrous for any outsiders to see what he was plotting, but yet he also put a flotation device in the trunk so the papers would
eventually find their way back to us. At least that's what I believed for many years after he
drowned. But why on earth would he set up an outcome in which his folly would be exposed?"

Kogito, who idolized his father, wanted to open that red leather trunk to gather information needed to write a book - "The Drowing Novel", to honor his father's heroism. His mother didn't want him to have the red leather trunk when he first asked for it as she wanted a chance to weed out contents that would have broken his heart to learn about the truth about his father. Plus, his mother didn't relish having their dirty laundry aired in public.
As a result, Kogii and his mother were estranged for years.
After she died... His sister, Asa, called him to come back home and go through it so he may consider writing his 'drowning novel'.

By this time he is in his 70's, he has written other work.. Novellas.. Yet never gave up on this dream.
He's married with two children...living in Matsuyama, not far from Toyko. It's been ten years since his mother died at the age of 95, and he is going to fly home to Shikoko....(the island he grew up on).... back to the forest house.... excited to begin writing, to celebrate his father.

Chikaski, his wife doesn't go with him.. but supports him. They have two kids: Their son Akari and daughter Maki. Akari was born disabled with a skull defect.. but has taken to music. Listening to classical music, creating and composing is his domain

When Kogito arrives back home.. First time in many years. (His dad had died more than sixty years ago), he meets theater directors Unaiko, Masao Anai, and "The Caveman Drama Group".
Kogito may be wanting to get closure on his father's death...needing material from the red leather trunk.. But the drama directors and thespians are excited to have him contribute to the play they are doing also. But when Kogito discovers there is no useful material for his book.. he feels like a failure having hit a brick wall.

This story begins to take an interesting turn around this time when we see & feel the disappointment - deep letdown. It's at this point.. I was aware.. this is an old man... And aging writer...who says himself he wakes each morning with pessimistic thoughts.

So...Kogito flies back home. His sister, Asa, and theater group remains on the island.
After Kogii is home for awhile, it seems.... troubles just begin. He and his son are both dealing with depression.. "Two giant mounds of Depression"...
Chikaski's brother, Goro, has committed suicide, by jumping off a building.
Kogito has a huge attack of Veritgo leaving him with ongoing chronic dizzy spells,
Chikaski gets sick, ( Maki, her daughter takes care of her)...

AND... Kogito 'still' can't let go of his failed novel and his childhood memory of what happened the night his father went out on the boat...(obvious he was running away), but died before he reached a destination.

So, he returns to his island home a second time. The young theater people are still at the forest house...
Hoping "Mr. Choke" will write his drowning story.
On this trip he takes his son with him..(who is now 45 years himself). There is tension between their relationship ...
But between, his son's disability, and now sometimes seizures, and his own challenges with Veritgo symptoms....Kogito's reoccurring dream from childhood is coming back.

"His recurrent dream reflected the idealized perspective of the young boy who believed
Wholeheartedly that his father was on his way to commit a doomed act of heroism when he drowned"........THAT WAS THE STORY HE WAS GOING TO TELL.

However, secrets were kept. Plus, it's possible little Kogii... had heard information when he was only ten years old that was too difficult or radical for him to process. It's possible his conscious mind could suppress it. He may have over-heard about his father being involved with a political scheme... too confusing her little ears.
Young children in Japan are rooted in emperor- worshiping nationalism in their schools.

There are other characters I have not mentioned.. other stories.. themes..told..(I couldn't possibly review everything), and as long as this review is,... (forgive me), I don't think I've come close to expressing the magnitude of this novel. It's an extraordinary accomplishment.
It's a novel that could be broken down and discussed for months...the richness in the storytelling is top notch.
The Japanese family culture itself is beautiful and fascinating: the power of generations....pride....ritual suicide--(junshi), correspondence communications as a way of connecting, murky relationships, taboo topics, etc.

The moon shines.... Vegetable gardens are built...the river flows....
But what is the cold hard truth as to what happened years ago when Kogii's father set off in his
little boat...(with the red leather trunk)...and ended up being drowned?

And... does Koggii write his drowning novel? ( I'm not sayin)

Thank you to Grove Atlantic, Netgalley, and author Kenaburo Oe.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3+

Kenzaburo Oe is considered one of Japan's finest authors since WWII. In 1994, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for creating "an imagined world where life and myths condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today". He was also long listed for the International Booker Prize.

This novel could be summed up by the very description given above. As with many books that mix life and myth, this book was perplexing, often leaving me baffled, unsure, questioning. Adding a different culture to the mixture only increased that aura of mystique. Yet even with the veil of fog that prevented me from understanding all the nuances, I enjoyed the book.

Kogito Choko, nicknamed Cogi, is the narrator and alter-ego of author Oe. Like Oe, he is an older man famous for his many novels. He returns to his remote boyhood home with the hope of being able to write his final novel, his masterpiece. He envisions the book to be about the drowning death of his father when he was ten years old; the circumstances of this death continue to haunt him in a recurring dream. Could he have saved his father? Was it a planned suicide, a way his father could disguise his involvement in a planned attempt to assassinate the Emperor at the end of WWII? Suicide was preferable to disgracing the family.

This story within a story also describes the aged novelist's tense interactions with his mentally impaired though musically brilliant son. Oe also has a son with similar handicaps and abilities. The young Cogi and his father too, had a difficult relationship. Even more essential to the novel is an experimental theatre group that has dramatized many of Cogi's earlier works, often in bizarre ways. The group has moved into Kogito's country home at the invitation of his sister and are collaborating on this planned new novel. Many themes develop and much is divulged about the members of this group and their work. Young women dress differently; they are more assertive. Sexual assaults, long kept quiet, are now spoken of and vilified. Serious disagreements between conservative and progressive factions become evident. The Japanese culture is changing faster than the aging novelist realized.

In researching Oe and his work, I learned that this novel probably wasn't the best place to jump into his books. Many reviewers indicated clarity comes with reading his entire oerve; the novels are interwoven with many of the same themes and characters. I look forward to fitting the Oe puzzle pieces together, that 'aha" moment when something clicks. Even that lost puzzle piece, as frustrating as it is, can be coped with if the writing is great and the story unique.

[Meltem Sağlam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roman, yazarın son eseri ve sanki önceki tüm çalışmalarını ve bu çalışmaların amaç ve arka planındaki olay ve fikirlerini içeriyor.

Roman anlatıcısının, yazarın ‘alter ego’su olması nedeniyle, birinci tekil kişi anlatımı olsa da, Japonya’da doğan ‘ben roman (shishostsu)’ özelliği taşıyıp taşımadığı, yani metnin ne kadarının biyografik öğeler taşıdığını, ne kadarının kurgu olduğunu anlamak -en azından benim için- çok zor. Buna rağmen ben tüm metni biyografik bir roman düşüncesi içinde okudum ve büyük keyif aldım. Ana karakterin romanda bir senaryo yazması, ancak gerçekte yazarın böyle bir senaryonun olmaması gibi bazı açık veriler olsa da… Fakat, romanda anlatıcının tüm duygularının, yazarın gerçek duyguları olduğuna eminim.

Başta baba, anne, abla olmak üzere diğer tüm karakterlerin gerçek olup olmadığının yanısıra iyi mi kötü mü olduklarını da son sayfaya kadar sorgulamaya devam ettim. Ki bu da çok özel bir okumaydı. Hepsiyle empati kurup, sevgi ve nefret duyguları arasında kararsız kaldım, çok şaşırtıcıydı.

Beni şaşırtan konu da, bir roman olsa da, karakterlerin, aile içinde kalması gerektiği düşünülebilecek konuları, tamamen yabancı kişilerle son derece rahat paylaşması, sanki normalmiş gibi bunların tartışılması ve tüm konuşmaların, konuşmanın konusu olan kişiye yine normalmiş gibi aktarılması. Ayrıca, şefkat ve samimiyetten uzak anne ve abla karakterleri ile Unaiko karakterinden hiç hoşlanmadım.

Romanda, asıl eksen olarak kabul ettiğimiz, anlatıcının babasının ölümünü çözmeye çalışmasının yanında, birbirinden farklı fakat bağlantı kurulan iki yan konu da zincirleme şeklinde birlikte işleniyor; Soseki’nin ’Gönül’ romanı ile anlatıcının yazdığı bir film senaryosu olan ve tiyatro oyununa aktarılmaya çalışılan ‘Meisuke’nin Annesi Savaşa Gidiyor’ senaryosunun incelenmesi. Yazarın tamamen farklı bir konuya girdiğini ve bu konuda derinleştiğini ve konunun dağıldığını, eksenin kaydığını düşünmeye başladığınızda, iki yoğun konunun bir şekilde birbirine bağlanması ve sonunda da ana konuyla bütünleşmesi şaşırtıcı. Ayrıca romanda kırmızı bavul gibi birçok simge ve büyük yazarlara atıflar var.

Romanda işlenen; savaş karşıtlığı, tecavüz, zorbalık, aile ilişkileri ve kişisel travmalar ile gerçeklik ve hayal çizgisinde olan, unutulan ve hatırlanan anıların etkileri de önemli.

Teknik olarak çok başarılı olsa ve tüm bu etik değerleri başarılı bir biçimde düşünmeye ve tartışmaya açsa da, ağır, zor okunan ve soğuk bir roman.

Ayrıca şaşırtıcı şekilde metinde çokça imla

[Left Coast Justin]

There’s just too many good books out there awaiting my attention to spend any more time with this one. Its sheer oddity made it interesting, at first, but oddity alone cannot carry a book for 400+ pages. What was really interesting at first soon became irritating and ultimately just tiresome. Because I gave up 40% of the way in, I will not supply a rating.

Not since Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient have I read something that so clearly did not intend to fool the reader into thinking they were reading about something that really happened. The artifice in this book is achieved in part by stilted language:

”Speaking of listening,” Masuo continued, “my dramatic method involves incorporating a variety of voices and ways of thinking into every production, and then bringing the collaborative group synergy to life onstage.”

Right.

The other maddening technique…most of this book was looking back at past events. The author has decided to handle this in what is probably the worst possible way, by having one character explain things to another character that the second character clearly knows already; this is just a clumsy method of explaining things to the reader. Consider this example, one of dozens, in which a wife explains to her husband

”As you know, you added a daily walk to your normal sedentary routine of sitting around the house reading and writing after the doctor said you should take Akari out walking as part of a fitness regimen. It went on for a long time, and then when Akari started having more and more epileptic seizures during your daily walks together, you got into the habit of walking for an hour early in the morning by yourself. You simply gave up on taking Akari along."

This continues for a few more paragraphs. Maybe she thought he forgot about those epileptic seizures?

The text of his Nobel Prize award talked about his “imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today.” In this novel, the narrator describes his work to the reader using these exact words. This seems kinda tacky to me. Anyway, enough whining. Onwards and upwards!

[Deniz Balcı · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okur olarak en yetkin olduğum alan Japon Edebiyatı olmasına rağmen, 'Suda Ölüm' romanını okurken zorlandığımın altını çizerek bahsime başlamak isterim, sonra bozuşmayalım:) Benim nezdimde Kenzaburo Oe, diğer Japon yazarlardan keskin bir şekilde ayrılır. Kendini ifade etme şekli, seçtiği konular ve olayları bağlamlandırmadaki yaklaşımıyla daha çok Batılı yazarlardan alışık olduğumuz modern bir perspektif içerisindedir. Romanlarında çok katmanlı, analojik olarak zengin bir anlatım tercih eder. içerik kadar, içeriğin sunuluşu konusunda da girift bir aktarıcıdır.

'Suda Ölüm' Oe'nin dilimize çevrilen diğer kitaplarının aksine, uzun yazarlık hayatının son dönemine ait bir eser. Haliyle 'Kişisel Bir Sorun' ya da 'Sessiz Çığlık' gibi romanlarından epey farklı. Oe, romanının içerisinde Edward Said'in sözleriyle 'Sanatçının yaşamının sonunda o zamana kadarki tüm eserlerini altüst edecek gerçek bir ustalık dönemi işi' olarak nitelenen; o eseri yazmaya çalışmadığının, yazamadığının altını çiziyor fakat bana kalırsa o ustalık dönemi işini başarmış, yazmış. 'Suda Ölüm' fazla düşünülmüş ve üzerinde çok çalışılmış gibi duran kurgusuyla, samimiyetten uzak bir his yaratsa da yazarlık yeteneği açısından Oe'nin dehasını ortaya koyuyor. Yukio Mişima'nın ustalık dönemi işi olan 'Bereket Denizi Dörtlemesi', yazarın kanından ve ruhundan bir parça gibi ilahi bir hare ile varlığını devam ettirmektedir mesela, bu roman için bunu söyleyemem ama yine de Oe'nin eteğindeki bütün taşları döktüğünü ve olağanüstü bir şeffaflıkla kendi tecrübesini romanına aktarabildiğini söyleyebilirim. Bu açıklık, yazarla alışık olmadığımız tarzda bir yakınlık yaşamamızı sağlıyor ve bunu seviyorum.

'Suda Ölüm' aslında ne kadarının gerçek ne kadarının kurgu olduğunu kestiremediğimiz bir anlatı. Japon Edebiyatı'nın yaygın türlerden biri olan 'ben-Roman'ın, en katmanlı örneklerinden bir tanesi. Kenzaburo Oe'nin alter egosu olan yazar Kogito Choko'nun başkarakter olduğu kitapta Oe, babasının onun için şaibeli olan ölümünü kurmacasıyla yeniden yaratmaya girişiyor. Fakat babasına dair o romanı yazamayacağını anladığı süreçte, o romanı yazamamanın yansımalarına dalıyor. Anlayacağınız 'Suda Ölüm' romanı esasen yazılmak istenen bir romanın, yazılamayışının hikayesi. Bu romanda yazara ilk kitabından da aşina olduğumuz engelli oğlu Akari, eşi, arkadaşları, çocukluk anıları, babasının grotesk ölümü, o döneme dair toplumsal fon, tanınmış arkadaşları ve onlarla yaşadıkları, eski romanları, yazarlık motivasyonu, aile ilişkileri gibi çok farklı özyaşamöyküsel gerçeklikler eşlik ediyor. Tüm bu örgü, anlatıyı bizim için gerçek bir sayıklamaya dönüştürüyor.

Babasının ölümü üzerine kapsamlı bir düşünme süreci yaşayan yazarın, zamanla edindiği farkındalık; içsel bir hesaplaşma metni ortaya çıkarıyor. Belleğin öznelliği ile şekillenmiş bir zihnin gerçeği yeniden keşfetmesine dair çok dağınık ama ilginç bir sürece konuk ediyor bizi. Kitabın eksenini sürekli olarak farklı bir yere çeken bir yan sekans da eklemiş romana yazar: Unaiko isimli genç bir tiyatrocunun, postmodern tiyatro denemesine dair tanıklığı ve sonrasında o tiyatro çalışmalarına dahil olması. Bu yan sekans aslında romanın mesaj kaygısı taşıyan ve anlatının vurucu olan noktasını oluşturuyor. Belki sadece bu öyküyü yazmak vardı Oe'nin kafasında ama bunu anlatısının içerisine yerleştirerek, romanının etkileyici sonunu heterojen ama son derece şık bir şekilde örmeyi başarmış. En başından itibaren sıçramalarla giden öyküleme, kitabın son sayfasında yaptığı bir hamle ile bütünleniyor.

İkinci Dünya Savaşı esnasında, aşırı sağcı örgütlerle girdiği ilişkiler sonucunda bir eylem planı üzerindeyken trajik bir şekilde ölen yazarın babasının öyküsü, aslında yansımalarla ölüme çok yakın olan Oe'nin içsel dünyasını bizim için görünür kılıyor. Yani bu roman Oe'nin bir nevi ölüme hazırlanması, hayatı boyunca eserlerinin izleklerinde onu takip eden hayalet imgelerle hesaplaşması, geçmişiyle dürüstçe söyleşmesi olarak yorumlanabilir. Oe'nin en büyük handikabı kendisinin de yer yer belirttiği gibi çağın çok gerisinde bir anlatım şekli tercih etmesi. Zira zaman zaman karakterlerin konuşmaları hantallaşıyor ve okuru yabancılaştırıyor. Ama Kenzaburo Oe'nin edebiyat, şiir, çeviri, istismar, folklor, temsil, tiyatro, siyaset, engellilik, babalık gibi meselleriyle nasıl bir ilişkisi olduğunu analiz etmek adına kusursuz bir kaynak olduğu gerçeği değişmiyor. Usta bir yazarın destansı bir kariyerden sonra okurlarına, kendini böylesine deşifre ettiği bir metin hediye etmesi bende her daim minnet duygusu oluşturuyor.

Roman Natsume Soseki'nin 'Gönül' romanının eleştirel bir analizi ile açılıyor. Sonrasında ise deneysel tiyatronun yöntemlerine dair orijinal canlandırmalarla ilerliyor. Müzikle ilgili çok bilinçli bazı tespitler düşünürüyor. Sonrasında Japon folkloruna dair yerleşik bazı öyküler didikleniyor. Epey zengin bir hikayelemeden bahsediyorum yani, çok renkli çok zengin.

Bu yüzden de, bu zor bir roman. Hatta belki de Türkçede okuyabileceğiniz en zor Japon Edebiyatı metinlerinden biri. Zira kendini dışarıya sunan bir Japon yazar yok burada, haliyle büyülü bir sofistike dünyaya almıyor sizi. Çok Japon bir yerden, kendi gerçekliğinden sesleniyor. Fakat okuduktan sonra zorlandığınıza değiyor.

Son olarak çevirmen Ali Volkan Erdemir'den bahsetmek lazım. Kenzaburo Oe'nin eserleri hep zor çevrilen ve ağdalı metinler olarak anılır. Bu yüzden, sanıyorum ki Türkçede de çevirme girişimi az oldu. Böylesine karmaşık ve yüklü bir metini, bizimle olağanüstü bir Türkçeyle buluşturduğu için Ali Volkan Erdemir'e ne kadar sevgi, ne kadar saygı sunsak az kalır. Ömrü uzun, çevirisi bol olsun umarım. İyi ki var.

[Odai Al-Saeed · Rating 3 out of 5]

لكل من يعشق شخص كنزابورو سوف تروق له هذه الرواية بشكل أو بآخر حيث أن نمطها السردي يمزج السيرة الذاتية لشخصه بالقولبة الروائية المتخيلة
سوف تتوالى الأحداث بشكل عميق لكنه بطيئ جداً يتطلب صبر وروية تتخللها بعض الرتابة والممل ..جيدة بالنسبة لي

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

"So one of my main literary methods is “repetition with difference.” I begin a new work by first attempting a new approach toward a work that I've already written—I try to fight the same opponent one more time. Then I take the resulting draft and continue to elaborate upon it, and as I do so the traces of the old work disappear. I consider my literary work to be a totality of differences within repetition."

Kenzaburō Ōe in an interview with the Paris Review:
http://www.theparisreview.org/intervi...

水死 (Suishi) by Kenzaburō Ōe (大江 健三郎), published in 2009, has been translated into English as Death by Water by Deborah Boehm.

The narrator is the authorial alter-ego Kogito Choko that Ōe has used in four previous novels, starting with the Changeling in 2000 (the three intermediate novels are yet to be translated into English), and now in his seventies. And while Death by Water was originally billed as Ōe's last novel, he has since published, an as yet untranslated sixth, "In Late Style" (2011).

Kogito Choko shares many similarities with Ōe e.g. his family including his mentally handicapped son, now middle-aged and a savant composer, his political views and the opposition they attracts from ultra-rightish factions and, at times a little confusingly, his literary works.

But the biographical detail on which Death by Water hinges differs from Ōe's own, as the novel is centred on Kogito Choko's attempts to finally write the work that has been on his mind since his father drowned just after the end of World War 2, when Kogito was a boy. (Whereas Ōe's father was killed in military service in the war itself). Kogito's father had got involved, as a mentor, with a group of young army officers horrified at the Emperor's surrender and plotting potential revenge, and died while attempting to navigate a swollen river by a makeshift raft. Ever since Kogito has been haunted by the question of whether his father was the instigator of the plot or a follower, and whether his father was fleeing the soldiers or attempting a journey to aid them, including a recurrent dream of the events of the night which he increasingly finds hard to separate from what actually happened.

As an author, he naturally attempt to answer the questions via his works and tells us:

"I did make a stab at writing the drowning novel once, when I was in my mid thirties. I had already published The Silent Cry, which seemed to prove that I had attained a certain degree of proficiency, and that accomplishment gave me the confidence to dive in at last."

But that original attempt failed when Kogito sent a first draft to his mother, requesting she give him access to a red leather trunk of papers that was rescued after his father died. Instead she destroyed his draft and refused him access to the trunk. Kogito responded by writing a more allegorical and exaggerated account. "The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away" (mirroring a real life book written by Ōe), which incenses his mother further and she even stipulating in her will that he not be allowed to access the papers for ten years.

The novel is set when that moratorium expires, and Kogito is finally able to look inside the trunk and, he hopes, complete the novel that will be the culmination of his life's work.

"With these concrete clues in hand, maybe if I just kept digging - and if I could manage to incorporate the long-held ideas I'd expressed in The Silent Cry and had overlaid, in that book, with the area's popular folklore - perhaps I might be able to chronicle my father's life and death as it paralleled and reflected this dark period in Japanese history,"

[as an aside, a key point as to how the trunk survived the drowning - Kogito as his father's request inserted an inflated bicycle inner tube into the trunk as a floatation device - suggests Ōe is a better writer than he is a physicist!]

He also gets involved with a theatre troupe, who are basing their, highly imaginative, dramatic productions on his works. As he struggles to write the novel, the group see a mutual opportunity for him to work directly with them instead:

"I'd love it if we could give one last chance at creative fulfilment to the ageing author who's still tormenting himself after all these years, asleep and awake, because he wasn't able to save his father from drowning!"

As with many of Ōe's books, it is centred on the work of a particular poet (previous novels have used ideas from Blake, RS Thomas and Kim Chi-Ha) and philosophers (Edward Said being his favourite), "The ideas in my novels are fused with the ideas of the poets and philosophers I am reading at the time."(Paris Review interview). Here the poet is TS Eliot and the English title (the Japanese is closer to "drowning"), "Death by water" comes directly from a part of his "Waste Land"

"DEATH BY WATER
...
A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers.
As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool."

Another poem plays a key role, that etched on the stone commemorating Kogito's winning of a "major literary prize" [paralleling Ōe's Nobel], the first two lines written by his mother and the last three by Kogito in response.

"You didn't get Kogii ready to go up into the forest/
And like the river current, you won't return home/
In Tokyo during the dry season/
I'm remembering everything backward/
From old age to earliest childhood."

The poem is used to explore the theme of family conflict but also of Kogito's need, as he approaches the end of his life, to put his own affairs in order, particularly the future of his handicapped son.

An interesting reading of "The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion" by Sir James George Frazer is used to explain the plot in which his father became enmeshed, and Edward Said's "On Late Style" is another important reference. The novel contains lot of critical comments on Kogito's (and by extension Ōe's) "late style", and a key theme is that of an elderly novelist, no longer as popularly acclaimed as he once was, and particularly regarded as less relevant by a younger generation (talking of a younger man who does still take an interest in Kogito's work, another young character tells him "a more typical member of his generation might have dismissed you as an irrelevant fossil from the past (no offence)").

Perhaps the most damaging implicit self-criticism comes towards the novel's end:

"For Mr. Choko, this probably is a 'serious novel,' both in terms of structure and literary style. However, the thing is, over the past ten or fifteen years all of Mr. Choko's long works of fiction have more or less been cut from the same cloth, most notably in terms of the protagonist (who is often the first-person narrator as well). Not to put too fine a point on it, but the author's alter ego is nearly always the main character in his books. At some point, doesn't it become overkill ? I mean, can these serial slices of thinly veiled memoir really be considered genuine novels ? Generally speaking, books like this will never win over the people who want to read a novel that's actually novelistic: that is, an imaginative work of fiction. So at the risk of seeming rude, I really have to ask: Why do you choose to write about such a solipistic and narrowly circumscribed world?"

The narrative form a little forced at times, much of the book consisting characters telling each other things ("as you know...") about Kogito's life history and works, largely for the reader's benefit, and can get a little convoluted in the middle e.g. at one point we are presented with a letter to Kogito from his sister describing a play which itself is a critical exposition (rather than dramatisation) of a book which isn't even Kogito's (Natsume Soseki's Kokoro). The English-speaking reader also cannot help but be less than 100% familiar with Ōe's (and hence Kogito's) works given they haven't all been translated.

The translation itself feels generally successful, besides a few jarring Americanisms ("out in the boonies"). Boehm copes well when the novel relies on Kanji, even reproducing some in the text. She also appears to have chosen to insert extra context directly into the text, that others may have omitted, footnoted or explained in a translators introduction, but her decision is the right one here as it fits Ōe's strongly expository style.

And just when one is wondering how Ōe will end such a digressive novel, or whether it will simply peter out, the final pages pack a real emotional punch.

By no means an easy read, and given how it builds on his life's work, someone new to Ōe would be better starting with, say, A Silent Cry (Per the Paris Review interview "It is a work from my youth and the faults are apparent. But I think it’s the most successful, faults and all."). But nevertheless extremely impressive.

[Andrew]

It pains me to think that Kenzaburo Oe, one of the most wildly inventive authors of the past 50 or so years, has run out of steam, but this was frankly something of a slog. Sure, there were some really interesting parts, especially towards the end, but the whole thing just felt like a bit of an aimless ramble without many interesting stops along the way, and none of the dark, moody setpieces that made Oe's novels such a pleasure to read in years past. Feel free to skip this one.

[Khol0d Atif · Rating 4 out of 5]

أحب كنزابورو اوي وأحب كل ما يكتبه..هنا تمتزج السيرة الشخصية بالرواية وتشعر بالحيرة حيث لا خط فاصل بين الخيال والحقيقة.
ومع ذلك أفهم لو القاريء غير المهتم بكنزابورو وسيرته وجدها مملة عكس رواياته الأخرى المترجمة

[Hakan · Rating 5 out of 5]

özel bir roman. oe'nin hayatının ve romancılığının romanı olarak kişisel anlamında özel. ve çok nadir karşılaşılacak bir roman anlamında özel.

oe romancılığında hayatını merkeze alıyor. hayatında romansal olarak belirlediği üç tema var: travmatik çocukluğu, zihinsel engelli oğlu ve ülkesinde ikinci dünya savaşından sonra gerçekleşen dönüşüm. bu üç tema üzerinden gerçekliği hayal gücüyle romanlaştırdığını bizzat bu romanda, suda ölüm'de okuyoruz. suda ölüm'ün konusu bu: üç tema üzerinden yazarın hayatı ve hayatının romanlaştırılması. haliyle okuyabileceğimiz en açık romanlardan biriyle karşı karşıyayız. bununla birlikte zor, karmaşık, anlaşılmaz bulunan bir roman suda ölüm. büyük bir çelişki gibi. ama değil.

genel anlamda bakarsak, bir romanın açıklığıyla birlikte kolay anlaşılırlığı bayağılık anlamında bir basitliğe işaret eder. bu durumda edebiyattan bahsedilemez. ve zaten japon romanı okuyarak japonları ya da japonya'yı anlayamayız. bu zaman zaman okur olarak hepimizin içine düştüğü bir yanılgı. anladığımızı, çözdüğümüzü düşünürüz. oysa iyi romanların hiçbiri çözmez. tam tersine meseleyi aktarır. iyi romanlar cevap değil soru verir bize, sorun verir, kafamızı karıştırır. oe gibi büyük yazarlarda, suda ölüm gibi büyük romanlarda yazarı-romanı çözme düşüncesinden bile uzak durmak gerekir. çocukluğunda babası ömür boyu sürecek bir travma yaratarak ölen roman kahramanını anlayabilir miyiz?..ya da zihinsel engelli bir çocuk sahibi olmayı?..hayır.

suda ölüm'ü anlayamayız. oe'yi anlayamayız. özellikle içeriğiyle tam bir japon romanı olduğu için suda ölüm'ü anlayamayız. japon edebiyatı bilgimizle, japonya bilgisiyle bu romana yaklaşılırsa bu roman iter. empati kurmaya çalışarak yaklaşılırsa iter. bütün bir ömrün, dev bir romancılık kariyerinin sonunda yazılan bu roman zaten okur kolaycılığına prim vermeme ayrıcalığıyla yazılmıştır. daha net söyleyelim: biz beğenelim, sevelim diye yazılmamıştır.

bize düşen hem yapısı ve kurgusuyla hem de meselesiyle tamamıyla açık olan suda ölüm'e aynı açıklıkla yaklaşmaktır. bunu yapabilirsek romanın meselesini çözmek yerine romanla beraber düşünmeye başlarız. empatiyi, genel olarak kendi duygularımuzı geride tutabilirsek romanın duygusunu hissedebiliriz. anlamak çoğu zaman anlamanın uzaklığını anlamaktır. suda ölüm dev bir roman, karşısında okur olarak olabildiğince saf ve alçakgönüllü durmalıyız. ancak o zaman harika bir roman okumuş oluruz.

[Roger Brunyate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Déjà, Déjà, Déjà Vu

I have now read three books by Oe: the comparatively early Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids (which I greatly enjoyed), this one, and its immediate predecessor, The Changeling . In my review of that, I compared it to a fractal image, in which any one part contains references to every other, not just within the novel itself but seemingly revisiting most of the author's oeuvre. For the first third of this latest novel, I felt I was reading The Changeling all over again. The first-person protagonist may have a different name, Kogito Choko (known as Kogii), but the novels he has written have the same titles as Kenzaburo Oe's, he is the same age, has had precisely the same career, he is obsessed with the death of his father, and he is also the father of a brain-damaged son who is something of a musical genius. Whether Choko or Oe, he gazes obsessively into a mirror as he writes.

The self-referential quality is built into the plot premise. Choko goes back to his village in the mountains where he was born, intending to open a red leather trunk containing (he believes) documents that will enable him to complete a long-postponed novel about the death by drowning of his father, who may have been connected with an ultra-right-wing group protesting Japan's surrender after WW2. He goes under the aegis of a theatrical company, the Caveman Group, who have already mounted dramatizations of many of his earlier works, and now want to stage themes from his entire oeuvre, held together by his work on the new "drowning novel," which is to be the summary of all that has gone before. This is déjà vu raised to the level of an art form.

Not that Oe is unaware of this. Late in the book, he has a young admirer visit him, who lays it out: "Over the past ten or fifteen years all of Mr. Choko's works of fiction have more or less been cut from the same cloth, most notably in terms of the protagonist […] the author's alter ego. At some point, doesn't it become overkill? I mean, can these serial slices of thinly veiled memoir really be considered genuine novels?" [translation by Deborah Boliver Boehm]. The young man has a point, yet the repeated turning over of the same materials has a curious fascination—for a while. [I am struck, incidentally, by how many Nobel laureates seem to turn to this autobiographical self-referentiality in their later work: Grass, Coetzee, and Modiano, to name three others. Is this something the Nobel committee goes for, or what writers tend to do after winning the prize?]

I am enthralled by this obsessiveness in the short novellas of Modiano, but the trouble with Oe is that he does it at such length. Two dozen pages are spent, for example, analyzing a five-line poem inscribed on the stone celebrating Choko/Oe's prize. And each time, the poem is quoted in full. Whole paragraphs of argument are repeated almost verbatim, with only the smallest changes. There is a scene where the director of the theater company asks if he can pose some questions, but the whole thing is basically a five-page monologue for the director, with the author merely putting in brief answers like "I suppose that's right." Entire chapters consist of letters from Choko's sister Asa, describing the same theatrical performance in excruciating detail, only to repeat much of that detail in the next and the next.

About one-third of the way through, fortunately, Choko and the Cavemen abandon this particular project, and the novel begins to address other subjects. Kogito says something unforgivable to his son, causing a breach between them, mirroring perhaps the death of Kojii's father and his rift with his mother. The thirty-something actress Unaiko, who had been Kogii's principal liaison with the Caveman Group, breaks off to start a project of her own, and the novel takes on a quite interesting feminist thrust. This links to a film that Choko had written earlier (film also plays an important role in The Changeling) about a half-mythical heroine from his region. Gradually various linking themes become visible behind the thicket of orbiter dicta: the problem of coercion, whether by the state or personal; the power and victimization of women; the role of suicide; and above all the fact of old age and the handing-over of wisdom and authority from one generation to another. It may well be that even the personal themes have political resonance also. Oe is a major writer with major ideas, no doubt about it, but it takes real effort for a non-Japanese reader to separate his insights from his obsessions.

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 1 out of 5]

The repetitive ramblings of an once great old man. It pains me to bash Oe, but this novel is terrible.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Death by Water – perhaps the last novel by Nobel Laureate Kenzabure Oe is a fascinating book. A book to provoke both conversation and consternation, offering insights from the personal to the political.

The narrator Kogito Choko is an ageing author, reflecting on his life as a writer, and facing not only his own mortality but also the slow death of his books in the modern age. As the parent of Akari, a disabled child, he must ensure this son’s care into the future as well. While the women of this novel are demanding change in gender relations, it remains his responsibility to manage transition for the most vulnerable one in his family.

Kogito is surrounded by people who have overcome the stereotypical Japanese reserve in order to tell him bluntly what his failings are. This character shares with the author the distinction of winning that big international prize i.e. the Nobel Prize for Literature, but his unabashed critics include his wife Chikashi, his younger sister Asa who invokes his dead mother’s criticisms as well, and an entire chorus of young people who want to use his books for their own purposes – but haven’t necessarily read them. His family is empowered to say what they think because, to their dismay and embarrassment, he has mined their lives and their history for his books; and the young actors are empowered to transgress because they don’t share the psychological and behavioural boundaries of the past. As Asa says, with envy for their outspokenness:

I’ve noticed young women nowadays don’t appear to have any regrets about anything, or any awareness of the possibility that their present actions might be sowing the seeds for future regrets. That’s perfectly natural, of course, since they probably haven’t had time to do anything they regret. They seem to feel completely fine about everything: clean and true and pure of heart. (p.83)

There is a universality about these indignities of old age which even a Nobel Laureate cannot evade…

Mindful of his legacy and wary of writing a work not up to his previous standards, Kogito intends to write just one last book ....

To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2016/02/10/de...

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strangely hypnotic.

I know very little about Japanese literature apart from having read nearly all of Haruki Murakami's books. Murakami's books fall into two categories for me: the first is the group of weird ones that I really love and the second is the group of stories about maudlin, introspective people whose heads I want to bang together telling them to just get on with life. This book felt a bit like this second group a lot of the time. But then I found myself hypnotised by the text and being pulled through the story despite the fact that there isn't really much of a plot.

Although there isn't much of a plot, there is quite a lot going on and I'm not sure I made the connections between the different scenes. It's a story about an author's relationship with an avant-garde theatre group and it has the feel of a play with different scenes being acted out. I'm not sure if people cleverer than I am will join the dots between the different scenes, but I think several of them may have passed me by.

I am not sure that this should be the first of Oe's books that a person reads. I have the feeling that reading the others first would make this one a completely different book. But it's too late for me to find out about that now!

[erica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gusti saranno gusti, ma io non riesco a capire come questo libro possa piacere a qualcuno.
Do 1 stella perché lasciarlo senza valutazione non renderebbe l'idea.
È terribile, noioso, davvero brutto. Il libro più brutto che ho letto negli ultimi anni. Succede più nelle ultime 10 pagine che nelle prime 460. Anche i temi importanti che tocca, li tocca in modo così brutto che rende questo libro privo di alcuna utilità. Le uniche parti che ho letto con più interesse sono quelle del rapporto del protagonista con il figlio.
Per il resto noia.
Lo sconsiglio a chiunque. Anche al mio peggior nemico.

[Conor Ahern]

Sorry Kenzaburō, but if you haven't grabbed me after 200 pages, I don't think it's going to happen...

[Meral · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baştan yazar Oe'nin alter egosu olarak kabul ettiğimiz Kogito Choko'nun 70 li yaşlarını sürerken  1 yıldan az bir sürede yaşadığı bir eşiğe şahit oluyoruz.

Kogito, elli yaşındayken "nehre kapılarak" ölen, milliyetçi duygularla bir grup askeri ayaklanmaya teşvik etmekten yakalanmadan önce intihar eden babasının hikayesini yazmak istiyor. Babası o zamanlara dair tüm belgelerini kırmızı bir bavula koyuyor, ümidi; öldüğü sırada ruhunun oğluna yani yazara geçmesi ve o dönemin hikayesini yazıp halka duyurması. Ancak çok başat karakterler olan annesi ve ablası Asa, onun bu hikayeyi yazmasına engel oluyorlar. Yazarsa Kogito'nun,ailenin bu eylemden zarar göreceğini düşünüyorlar. Onunla ilişkilerini kesiyorlar. Anneleri öldükten 10 yıl sonra,  ablası Asa vasiyet gereği kırmızı bavulu yazara veriyor. Metinde anlatılan zaman buralarda başlıyor. Sık sık çocukluğa, babanın ölümüne, ailedeki diğer kayıplara geri dönülüyor.

Bu noktada, yazarın beyin fıtığı ile doğup, zihinsel engelli olarak kabul edilen ancak müzik yeteneği olan ( besteler yapmış) oğlu Hikari bu romanda Kogito'nun oğlu  Akari olarak kırklarını süren ve hala ebeveynine bağımlı bir hayat sürerken karşımıza çıkıyor. Çocuğuna "ibadet eder gibi" bakan Kogito, o sırada içinde bulunduğu ruh durumu nedeniyle ( karısının kanser olması, kırmızı bavuldaki belgelerin eksik-yetersiz çıkması) gergindir ve Akari'yi hastane kontrolüne götürdüğü sırada gerçekleşen bir çatışmadan ( ve oğluna hakaret etmesinden ) sonra araları bozulur.

Hem baba-oğulun aralarının iyileşmesi hem de Kogito'nun kırmızı bavuldakilerle son bir ustalık eseri yazabilmesi için Shikoku'ya her şeyin başladığı, babanın öldüğü, çocukluklarının geçtiği topraklardaki orman evlerine giderler.

Metinde müzik, edebiyat, sinema ve tiyatro sanatı ve teknikleri iç içe geçmiş durumda. Ama en çok tiyatro diyebiliriz. Çünkü Shikoku'da, kız kardeşi Asa'nın aracılığıyla yazarın eserlerini tiyatroya uyarlamak isteyen Mağara Adamları Tiyatro Topluluğu ile karşılaşma, iki taraflı dayanışma var. Romanın asıl karakterleri arasına girebilen bu grubun kadın çalışanları Unaiko ve Richan tıpkı yazarın annesi ve kız kardeşi gibi çok güçlü kadınlar. Romanın temel temalarından biri olan tecavüz ve kürtaj hem yazarın bir eseri üzerinden hem de Unaiko'nun hayatı üzerinden etkili bir şekilde işlenmiş. Kürtaj, tecavüz, radikal milliyetçilik, Japon mitolojisi,çocukluk, hafıza, aile, psikoloji, sinema, ve tiyatro sanatları, dilde anlam ve şu an hatırlamadığım pek çok tema gerektiği kadar yoğunlukta  işleniyor. Fakat bu bazı noktalarda yorucu oluyor ve metin çok yoğun dikkat istiyor.

Japon yazar Natsume Soseki'nin Gònül romanı, Frazer'ın Altın Dal'ı ve hatta, T.S. Elliot'un Çorak Ülke'si bu metinde göndermeler yapılan, kurguya kaynaklık eden metinler. Bu kitapla birlikte onları okumak bu metnin algılamasını arşa çıkarır kanaatimce.

Romanın başında Ormandaki Ev'in arka bahçesinde duran yarısını ölen annenin, yarısını da Kogito'nun yazdığı küçük şiirdeki metaforları anlamak da çok önemli. O birkaç satırda nerdeyse tüm aile dinamiklerini görebiliyor, halihazırda yaşanan hesaplaşmalara, yüzleşmelerin gercekliğini daha iyi kavrayabiliyorsunuz. Romanı okuduğum süre boyunca o şiire hiç yoksa yirmi kez döndüm.

Romanı, mitolojik, psikolojik, siyasi, feminist,  toplumsal bakış açılarının hepsiyle okumak mümkün. Hangi açıdan bakarsanız büyük şeyler söylüyor.

[fiza nasri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terlalu banyak perasaan-- suka dan tidak, letih dan kasihan. Ini tentang seorang penulis tua yang mati ilham untuk tulisan terbaru, ingatan lama yang datang semula tentang that old abandoned unfinished manuscript tentang ayah yang mati lemas. Dalam ingatan Kogii si ayah adalah seorang hero, mimpi-mimpi di malam hari tentang kepergian ayah dan hal waktu kecil yang sering mengimbau di hadapan mata.

Naratif dibiar dalam isu dan konflik yang berpanjangan, entah kenapa saya rasa setiap karakternya punya emosi tebal yang deep dan poetic tetapi secretive dan kadang terlalu mengikut perasaan. Namun, satu hal utama yang buat saya kagum tentang tulisan Oe adalah susunan deskriptifnya tentang topik bualan setiap watak, kadang ia melankolik dan cantik sekali. Surat-surat buat Kogii daripada Asa dan Chikashi yang berjela-jela panjangnya, diskusi tentang tulisan-tulisan Kogii yang ingin dipentaskan oleh Caveman Group yang bawa saya mengenal tentang karya Soseki Natsume (terlalu banyak spoiler tentang Kokoro)-- ia satu hal yang menarik walau agak draggy.

Terlalu lama saya tunggu sama ada Kogii boleh terus sambung tulis tentang that drowning novel ataupun tidak, tapi nampaknya konflik persekitaran dan keluarga lebih difokuskan dalam naratif-- tentang Unaiko, Daio dan Akari, Chikashi yang tiba-tiba jatuh sakit dan kisah sebenar pada malam si ayah mati lemas. Fragmen ingat semula yang terlalu banyak. Terima kasih untuk sisipan hal perang dan Meiji era. Tragedi akhir yang tak disangka dan ending yang sangat unexpected.

[زكرياء · Rating 2 out of 5]

رواية الوداع أو العمل الأخير، تقترب من السيرة الذاتية الروائية المتخيلة، إذ يستوحي الكاتب أحداثها من وقائع حياته مع دمجها بالخيال والتراث الشعبي
تحكي عن شوكو، كاتب ياباني في السبعينيات من عمره، يحاول أن يكتب رواية مستوحاة من حادث صادم تسبب في يتمه، وهو موت والده غرقًا في نهاية الحرب العالمية الثانية،
تبدأ الأحداث بعودته إلى القرية التي نشأ فيها في الذكرى العاشرة لوفاة والدته، وهو يحمل حلمًا متكررًا ولغزًا قديمًا، والهدف: استكشاف ما يوجد داخل حقيبة جلدية حمراء تخص والده، على أمل أن تحتوي على أشياء تساعده في كتابة عمله الأخير. لكن هل سيتمكن من كتابته فعلًا؟
بعد شخصية شوكو، الأب المتوفي غرقا، والأم المتوفية، هناك شخصية الزوجة والإبن الموسيقى والابنة ثم الأخت.
لكن الشخصية المؤثرة هي أونايكو، وهي فنانة مسرحية.
في القرية، ينشأ تعاون مع جيل جديد من المسرحيين المهتمين بتحويل أعماله إلى خشبة المسرح.
الرواية رحلة داخل الذاكرة، بين الفن والسياسة، بين الخيال والحقيقة.

اخترتها أولًا بسبب شغفي بالأدب الياباني. لم أكن أعرف الكاتب من قبل، لكن كلمة "الغرق" في العنوان شدتني، خاصة وأن عملي مع المهاجرين واللاجئين في إيطاليا الذين وصلوا عن طريق البحر جعلني قريبًا من هذا الموضوع وتجربته القاسية. لاحقًا اكتشفت أنها رواية ذات طابع سيرذاتي مفعمة بالخيال. الكاتب الحاصل على جائزة نوبل للآداب سنة 1994 يودّع القراء بهذه الرواية الأخيرة قبل رحيله عام 2023.
عمل يتأمل الصمت والشعور بالذنب، ويدعو إلى ضرورة الحكي لمواجهة الصدمات النفسية. كما يطرح أسئلة عن لقاء الأجيال، وعن الحق في رواية تاريخ العائلة.

المواضيع الرئيسية : العلاقة بين الكتابة والعلاقات العائلية، استعمال الفن في مواجهة الصدمة النفسية والعلاقة الأبوية

[yonca.reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yani tamam genel çerçeveye bakınca anlatmak istediği şeyler iyi hoş da çok zorladı.

[Knigoqdec · Rating 2 out of 5]

Книгата не е предназначена за нови читатели на Кензабуро Ое, поне според мен. До 130 страница героят се опитва да напише роман и после се отказва, което тотално проваля линията на историята, и без това доста крехка. Писателят в романа е изключително отблъскващ образ, другите са безинтересни. Смятам, че като цяло това е книга сборник с мисли и анализи върху по-ранни произведения на автора и дори върху чужди. Сухо повествование и много лошо скалъпени диалози. Иначе изданието на "Лист" на български е много добро и преводът е качествен.

[Daniel Dimitrov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Един много чепат роман на неосъществените планове.

Алтер-егото на Кендзабуро Ое е достолепен и уважаван японски писател. Един ден се прибира в селото си за да напише дълго плануван роман за удавянето на баща си, използвайки писмата запазени от майка му в черен кожен куфар. Междувременно група от местен авангарден театър иска да поставят на сцена серия интервюта с писателя.

Няма да успее да напише романа, но ще напише роман. Трупата няма да успее да изпълни артистичния си план, но ще изпълни друг сценарии. Изглежда, че удавянето на баща му в местната река е било напълно нелеп завършек на план за въстание срещу императора, подписал абдикацията на Япония през ВСВ.

Преплитат се темите за смъртта, за дълга, за самоубийството като израз на този дълг, за болния и зловещ японски национализъм и култът към смъртта, който национализма навсякъде изразява, за старостта, за трудната връзка на един възрастен баща с порасналия му умствено изостаналия син.

[Alan Chong · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm going to chalk this one up to me just not getting it. It is a frustrating read, with very few rewarding moments. I kept on listening to the retelling of the same stories over and over again, thinking it would go somewhere, but it never did. And it is a terribly "literary" novel, in a sense the culmination of a productive and important writer's career, and very much about that. Of course, I hadn't read any of his other books and knew nothing about him, and so was detached from the material. Also, it turns out I have very little penitence for the "literary" now. Even the ventures into mythology weren't particularly compelling for me, and the reading became a chore, which I finished only to say that I had done so.

[José Manuel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cuatro días me han hecho falta para no poder sacar más de aquí, aburrido es decir poco, que si, que puede ser que sea yo, que puede que esta no sea mi taza de té, pero yo... me bajo.

[Tonymess · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title “Death by Water” is taken from a phrase for drowning used by T.S. Eliot in the poem “The Waste Land”

Our novel focuses on the ageing famous writer, Kogito Choko (Kenzaburō Ōe), and opens with his return to the family home, ten years after his mother’s death, at his sister’s request. This reconciliation of family now gives Choko the, long deferred, opportunity to finish his novel that is about his father’s drowning death. As we explore more of this time it is also a reflection by Choko on his family relationships, his childhood memories and his imaginary friend Kogii. When our narrator returns home he meets up with a theatre troupe, the Caveman Group, who is planning to adapt all of his writings for the stage, a devise for the author to discuss his previous works with the theatre group whilst researching his “drowning novel”. The reflection on other works by Ōe are interspersed with interviews with Choko and (of course) the author’s internal musings.

One of the key prompts for Choko’s upcoming novel, apparently his last, is a family heirloom, a “red trunk”, hopefully it contains his family’s history, letters, feedback on his first draft of the ‘drowning man’ novel that he sent to his estranged (now dead) mother and further riches.

When Kogito Choko opens the red trunk his first discovery is three volumes of the English book “The Golden Bough”…later we learn “the myth of the Forest King of Nemi is one of the underlying themes of the whole ‘Golden Bough’, from beginning to end. The archetypal myth about the new king who kills his aged predecessor, thus engendering a renascence of fertility in the world.” Is this a reference to post-war Japan and the rule of Emperor Hirohito? Is this a reference to the passing on of the patriarchal role from Choko senior to Choko junior? Are these anthropological and folkloric principles a metaphor for modern Japanese politics? You’ll have to read this book yourself to find out….

However I jump ahead of myself, very early on in the novel do we learn of our narrator’s (and writer’s) fate, when he states: “what if the novelist himself ended up being sucked into the whirlpool in a single gulp when he was finished telling his story?”


As the inner sleeve explains this is “an interweaving of myth, history and autobiography…a shimmering masterpiece. Reportedly the last novel that Kenzaburō Ōe will ever write, this is an exhilarating ending for the great literary character of Kogito Choko and a deeply personal denouement for one of the world’s most important and influential living authors.”

There are many many layers to this work however for this exercise of reviewing the work I will primarily focus on the character of Kogito Choko as a mirror for Kenzaburō Ōe. For example when reflecting upon a theatrical representation of his work “The Day Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away” (written in 1972, published in English in the collection “Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness”) which features Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata ‘Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56’, Choko’s sister says

For my full review go to http://messybooker.blogspot.com.au/20...

[Chris Angelis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Personally, I don't believe in narrative plot. I think it's overrated - grossly so, as I explain here in more detail for anyone interested. Rather, I think that good books (especially literary-fiction ones) should be rather predicated on characters and affect. There can be vastly interesting narratives with literally "nothing happening", as long as the author pays attention to rendering characters that are complex, human, realistic, and that absorb and express affect.

And so, I was not troubled by reviews and descriptions affirming that Death by Water has almost no plot to speak of. In fact, I was encouraged, as I thought I would get a typical Japanese novel focusing on characters, alienation, and deep retrospection.

Unfortunately, that is not the case either.

There's nothing happening in Death by Water and that's OK. But there is no self-reflection or character realism either. The characters are stupendously unidimensional, flat, pointless, and lacking any kind of sophistication. They are completely and utterly paper-thin. Pairing that with a non-existing plot, and it's very hard to grab onto anything remotely engaging.

The narrative style itself is very naive and, frankly, what one would expect from a beginner. A lot of naive narrative exposition going on, further undermining the characters' personalities and realism. For example, I can't count the times that a character - in order to give for the umpth time the same info to the reader - tells another character something the latter already knows. In other words the narrative doesn't justify the dialogue at all, but the author keeps pushing it in order to pass some information. Awful strategy.

Yes, you can talk about all kinds of metaphors pertaining to narrative production; yes, the novel is highly self-referential; yes, there's a lot of intertextuality going on.

But it's also hopelessly, hopelessly boring. If, as a reader, I have to literally come up with symbolism in order to justify an entire book, something's very wrong to begin with.

P.S.
I gave up on the book at the 75% mark

[Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 3.5 star novel.
Around the first one-third of its length I found his story a bit slow on a theme on his life as an acclaimed author embittered by his father's tragic demise when he was a young boy. Eventually he planned to write a novel related to this incident tentatively entitled "Death by Water" (like this copy). Soon an important character named Unaiko has seemingly run into him in a park till he fell and she kindly helped him and thus become acquainted via their talking. Soon his son in his 40's named Akari has entered subtly as his responsibility due to his brain defect since his birth but he has proved himself a genius in classical music.

His readers, I think, would need patience regarding focusing on reading this 424-page fiction, many episodes are in the guises of long letters from his sister. By the way, I can't help wondering if his rare mildly erotic scene surprisingly initiated by Unaiko makes sense (she has her reasons as written to him, Kogito Choko, but I don't quite follow her, maybe, it's her sense of joking humor); however, it is not obscenity, we could accept that as a kind of 'soft porn'. Another thing worth mentioning is about Unaiko sexually assaulted by his uncle, a top bureaucrat in the Ministry of Education, when she was 17. After that for 18 years, fate has dictated her to meet him and her aunt (who took her to get an abortion after the tragedy) once again. I also wonder why her uncle still makes an advance toward his niece again after such a long time, Unaiko herself should have been wiser than that instead of being his prey. However, her uncle later shot dead seems to deserve his karma.

In a word, this novel is relatively readable depending on your faith on Kenzaburo Oe, the second Japanese Nobel Prize awardee in Literature, as well as your reading all or nearly all of his numerous works in which some novels are partially based on his direct experience especially on how to cope with such unthinkable plight related to his brain-defected son till the Oslo committee have observed and mentioned in their appreciation.

[Hanan Al_Jbaili · Rating 5 out of 5]

ثقافة اليابان ، العادات، التقاليد، يصور بشكل دقيق جدا في نطاق فلسفي خرافي!! ممتعة تغرقك بالتفاصيل المثيرة

[imelizz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sembrava di stare dentro una bolla. Tutto ovattato e lento, con personaggi piatti e monodimensionali.
Sembra un continuo mordersi la cosa, senza una vera e propria trama sviluppata.