¡Despertad, oh jóvenes de la nueva era!

by Kenzaburō Ōe

K vive en Tokio con su esposa y sus tres hijos. Eeyore, el mayor, padece una enfermedad mental, y durante un dramático acceso alza un cuchillo contra su madre. En lugar de afrontar la situación, la reacción de K es sentarse y leer en su estudio. Con el tiempo, los problemas de Eeyore obligan a K a volver a intervenir en la vida familiar, pero entonces sus lecturas de William Blake ya no ofrecen un refugio, sino una forma vital de comprender a su hijo. A medida que K se esfuerza por entender a su familia y asume sus responsabilidades, debe, también, analizarse a sí mismo, su relación con su padre, sus posicionamientos políticos o el papel que como escritor tiene en la sociedad.

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

299 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

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

[Stephen Durrant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kenzaburo Oe, winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature, wrote this novel in 1986, but it was only translated and published in 2002. To appreciate "Rouse Up" fully, one must know that Oe has a seriously brain-damaged son, Hikari, who is also a musical prodigy. In fact, some describe "Rouse Up" as "semi-autobiographical," although the translator John Nathan notes in his brief but helpful "postface," that simply equating the narrator to Oe and Eeyore, the brain-damaged child, to Oe's son Hikari is an error. Still, Oe seems to me to be using his novel, however the details might diverge from his own situation, to think through his relationship to Hikari and to find some redemption for himself and his family in an extremely difficult and painful situation. The medium for this redemption is the poetry of William Blake, for which the narrator has a lifelong obsession. Blake constructed a mythology of great imagination and believed, furthermore, that imagination is "Human Existence itself" (from "Milton"). Oe's narrator deploys his own imagination to think about his son through Blake's words and metaphors and rediscovers Eeyore not as a family burden but as a deeply affecting and even heroic figure--one of the "Young Men of the New Age." This novel will not appeal to everyone's taste. It is neither a work of grandiloquence nor of deep philosophy, and it meanders, sometimes in a rather flat style, back and forth in time linking events together in an almost stream-of-consciousness fashion. However, I found Oe's narrator's style perfectly positioned between Blake's lofty poetic rhetoric and Eeyore's flat, simple wisdom. In fact, I had difficulty putting this novel aside, but then I too, in my less significant fashion, have sometimes felt the power of poetry to help us structure and think about our own tangled experience.

[Ms.pegasus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Instead of discerning a plot or even a unifying theme, a reader of this book needs to ask: What problem(s) is the author exploring? This is a book of questions, not answers, and Oe returns to the same questions multiple times. Each time, he revisits a new memory and must revise his conclusion.

Oe uses the language and imaginative path of fiction to restructure the material that he has collected from his life. Every memory fits into a map of unfamiliar territory. The narrative is in first person giving the book the feel of a memoir. It's almost impossible to shake the conviction that this is a memoir, despite certain anomalies. His wife is depicted as a brooding wraith-like presence, and his two other children appear merely as supporting characters. Once again, his handicapped son figures as a main character. Here, the son is called Eeyore. It's a name that invites affection and suggests a timeless innocence.

Eeyore's first utterance in the book reflects his anxiety about emotional connection. Oe had been away on an extended trip. Eeyore's mother reassured him that Oe would return soon. Eeyore's reaction was startling: “'Is that right? Is he coming back on Sunday? Even if he is, right now he's dead. Papa is really dead!'” (Location 271). Oe is reminded that he is in fact aging, and has never finished the project he started ten years ago. His goal was to create a lexicon that would convey his emotional understanding of life. Oe falls asleep pondering the sense of disconnection his prolonged absence had created. “...my son was stroking my bare foot that protruded from the blanket with the fingers of his cupped right hand, gently, as if it were constructed of something soft and fragile. And he was whispering words of concern in a soft, calm voice...'Foot, are you all right? Good foot, nice foot! Gout, are you all right? Nice foot! Nice foot!'” (Location 232). It's a re-enactment of a much younger Eeyore when the author had been suffering from gout. He reassures Eeyore that his foot is OK. That reassurance seems to re-establish their connection in Eeyore's mind. So, without even trying, he has given Eeyore a definition of “foot.” By the end of the book, Oe will have expanded that definition, conceptualizing “foot” as the peripheral conduit for an apprehensive Eeyore to re-establish connection with his father.

Oe is forced to recognize an evolving Eeyore. He struggles to connect with this new persona. There were presentiments of this problem much earlier, when Eeyore had his first epileptic seizure. His seemingly catatonic state was more distressing than the other physical symptoms. Eeyore, himself, seemed to associate the seizures with death. Oe had always seen himself as his son's protector. Now he must consider how Eeyore can function in the world independently. Eeyore's equivalence of death and abandonment would be a legacy of unbearable bleakness, and Oe struggles to formulate a “definition” of death.

Oe turns to the apocalyptic poems of William Blake for inspiration. I should add here that I find Blake's poetry turgid and incomprehensible. However, Oe has been drawn to Blake's writings and illustrations since he was a youth. In “The Four Zoas” Blake introduces a complex mythology recounting the fragmentation of the Universal Man. There were four warring attributes: Urizen (Wisdom), Luvah (Passion), Los (Inspired Vision), and Tharmos (Senses). Oe wrestles with how these attributes are expressed in Eeyore. He becomes disturbed by Eeyore's claim that he never dreams. In his own life, dreams are an essential component, clarifying and enriching his life as an artist. He describes two dreams that merge Blake's imagery with Eeyore. Will Eeyore ever dream of him? Oe imagines that if Eeyore could dream, that would be a way for them to connect. Eeyore assuages those anxieties. Perhaps he really doesn't dream, but he knows what dreams are. If he has a bad dream, he will know enough to comfort himself, just as he comforts Oe one night when they are alone at the mountain cabin. Oe concludes this chapter with hope for the future.

Oe distills Blake's mythology into archetypes which he reincarnates through his own memories and an imaginary Eeyore's evolving personality. His examination includes innocence, isolation, rage, freedom and fear. Each distillation involves a painful cycle of memory, reconstruction, and finally hope.

It's impossible for me to review this book. I can only provide my limited interpretation. Whereas the passages referring to Blake were cryptic, I found his parallel story of Eeyore's growth moving. Oe brings his novel to a dramatic high point in his final chapter. Eeyore moves out of the house to spend his required term in the school dormitory. His return home is in a sense a reincarnation. He no longer views himself as “Eeyore.” The family must now address him by his adult name, Hikari. Oe's reaction is one of hope expressed in his quote taken from the prologue to Blake's poem, “Milton.”

John Nathan has provided not only an excellent translation, but an informative Afterword for this book.

NOTES:
I read parts of BLAKE'S POETRY AND DESIGNS, edi. Mary Lynn Johnson and John E. Grant, NY: Norton, 1979 in tandem with this book. The critical essays at the end were helpful, and I was also able to locate most of the quotes in Oe's book in the context of the poems, and editorial notes.

Interview with Oe
http://www.theparisreview.org/intervi...

[Pilar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leer sobre la figura de Kenzaburo Oé como padre atormentado de un hijo con discapacidad no ha llegado a emocionarme. El miedo al futuro y la aproximación racional al dolor que transmite, son los de una mente excesivamente académica. Ahora bien, sí que es tiernísimo el gesto de escribirle a su hijo un "libro de definiciones" del mundo, la sociedad y la humanidad. Ver cómo el chico descubre lo que significa la muerte sí me ha parecido conmovedor, pero poco más.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

He's getting lots of what he needs from William Blake, which is positive and good to know. But I don't think I've caught the Blake bug from Oe. Too much God and the Bible? And the first stanza of 'Jerusalem' reminds me of the evil Daily Mail and its famous "headlines to which the answer is obviously 'no'": "And did those feet in ancient time, Walk upon England's mountain green?" vs. "Does breast cancer screening do more harm than good?"

But when this book was about Eeyore and family life, it was often very moving. Really moving. I was trying not to cry on the bus. But am I allowed to say that it probably isn't difficult for a Nobel laureate to write a moving book about a kid with a learning disability growing-up and becoming his own person?

There were times when I felt Oe overthinking:
"When I travel out of the country for any length of time, including professional visits, I take one precaution against losing my presence of mind and emotional balance while I am a tumbleweed in an alien landscape: I make certain to take along the books I have been reading prior to departure."
Nobel prizewinner's "taking a book on your holidays" brainwave.

I laughed at: "(The taxi driver) insisted on stopping at the police station along the way to register us as a potential family suicide". I heart Japan so much.

A bit of honesty: I read it again because Yukio Mishima features.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oe is a fantastic writer and this is my first exposure to him...I get the impression he writes over the same 2 or 3 things (that is an admirable trait- for me- to see in an artist, an obsessive quality) and this book ties together his themes, his own past, his present life with his handicapped son and how the overlap with his art and intellectual pursuits in this case: Blake... a thoughtful and compulsively readable novel of ideas and how those ideas explode into scenes of wonder and beauty and pain.

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with much of Oe's fiction, the book heavily features the relationship of father with his mentally-handicapped and musically-talented son, based closely on Oe's actual situation. Compared to some of his other works the father/son relationship here is at the absolute core of the novel, rather than part of the plot, and indeed the work, told by the father as a first person narrator, is written as if it were autobiographical non-fiction.

However, as the translator John Nathan, points out in a very helpful postscript, while the novel is ground actual incidents from Oe's life, the details are fictionalised, including certain characteristics of his son. E.g. the Eeyore of the novel is better able to articulate his thoughts - it's as if Oe is using the fiction to try to imagine his son's opaque inner life.

The other key focus of the novel is the works of William Blake - and this part can be difficult if one is not as familiar with his work as Oe - as most readers including myself, won't be - although I found myself inspired to explore Blake further.

Overall, I found this a powerful addition to Oe's oeuvre, because of the more direct treatment of the subject matter, although Somersault followed by Silent Cry remain my favourite of his novels.

A word of commendation to John Nathan for an excellent translation - and a word of encouragement to him, and publisher and other translators, to bring us more of Oe's works into English - very few of his recent novels have been translated.

[twilightsprincess · Rating 5 out of 5]

この本は面白くてざっくり作家の生活を基づくのか知らなかった。文書のスタイルで書かれているのが好きだけど時々、意味をちょっと分からない。
This book was interesting - I didn't realize it was loosely based on the author's life! It's written in essay style which I liked but the meaning sometimes gets lost on me.

**I like getting political insight into Japan and how government is viewed, especially with some historical events. Overall this book was just a fascinating read.

**When going to bookstores, I like to pick up any Japanese authors I can find. This was one from Brattle Street Books.

[Pepe Llopis Manchón · Rating 4 out of 5]

Casi un diario de vida. O de dos vidas. Sí, un acierto; siento que Ōe tiene facilidad para la escritura.

[Felipe Madrigal · Rating 4 out of 5]

En algún momento de mi vida, cuando me obsesioné con Dostoievski, llegué a usar varios de sus libros como guías para entender la vida. Ahora sé que no soy el único. En esta, la más biográfica de sus novelas, que de por sí suelen ser muy personales ("novela no ficción, según su autor), Kenzaburo muestra como usó los textos y dibujos de William Blake para comprender, acercarse y relacionarse con su hijo con discapacidad intelectual: cada dilema, encrucijada, problema o tensión que surgiera en su relación, desde niño hasta que se hizo adulto, Oe buscó en Blake una respuesta (que no una solución) que le permitiera entender a su hijo como persona, más allá de sus limitantes aunque sin ignorarlas.
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No es, desde luego, un libro de autoayuda ni de consejos paternales. Es una hermosamente escrita reflexión sobre la sociedad y la familia y la forma en que estas no está hechas para integrar a las personas con discapacidades. Por eso el libro empieza con la intensión de un padre por escribir un libro que le explique las cosas, desde la Constitución hasta la muerte, a un adulto que siempre tendrá el entendimiento de un niño. De allí el nombre, en homenaje precisamente a a aquellos versos de Blake: "Despertad, oh jóvenes de la nueva era! ¡Oponed vuestras frentes a los mercenarios ignorantes! Pues tenemos mercenarios en el campamento, en la corte y en la universidad: los cuales, si pudieran, rebajarían lo mental para siempre y prolongarían la guerra corpórea".

***

Nunca había restado tan rapidamente como aquella vez en la escuela, cuando aprendí de Hiroshima y Nagasaky. Hice los cálculos para saber si mis padres estaba vivos cuando ocurrió. Se lo perdieron por solo un par de años, pero saber que cualquiera ligeramente mayor que ellos, algún hermano, amigo o simplemente alguien de su generación, coincidió en el tiempo con esta tragedia, llenó a este ataque de trágico realismo. Uno de esos testigos cronológico fue Kenzaburo Oe. Tenía 10 años cuando el cielo japonés se llenó de fuego y humo y sangre y gritos. No vivía lejos de allí (al fin y al cabo Japón es una pequeña isla). Pero ese hecho, ese y que pocos años después su país adoptara una Constitución totalmente pacifista (que en las últimas décadas ha incumplido) marcaría profundamente su vida y su escritura.
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Ser escritor, entendido en su sentido más amplio, como un contador de historias, casi que estaba en sus genes; al fin y al cabo el clan Oe ha sido por centenios el encargado de mantener viva la tradición oral de la región de Shikoku a través de cuentos, canciones, teatro, poesía y la enseñanza.
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Es quizás uno de los autores japoneses contemporáneos más traducidos al español, incluso antes de su Nobel de 1994, y esto gracias a su propia insistencia; al fin y al cabo en los 70 fue profesor invitado en México, y aunque en un inicio tenía un traductor simultáneo en sus clases (Oscar Montes), eventualmente no solo dominó el español sino que lo aprendió a amar.

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is what the French call a tour de force. I believe that's French for a tour of 'force', a Jedi ability that taps into pure potential and imagination (who knew the French were such nerds).
The "novel", if you can call it that, is a breathtaking study of the lives of two people who are completely intertwined, the author and his son. The honesty drips off of every page and makes this a stunning chronicle of a man's life with a mentally disabled child. The way he relates William Blake's poems and prophecies to his own life and struggles shows how universal these problems are, and too how universal is the healing that follows. By turns funny, heartbreaking, joyous, and insightful, the book manages to be more than the sum of its parts and is an interesting analysis of how Oe has lived his life since his son's birth. Highly recommended for fans of philosophical fiction.

[Manuel Romero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es la primera obra que leo de Kenzaburo Oe y una de las pocas novelas posmodernas que he leído. Trata de crear un vínculo entre las sensaciones que le transmite la poesía de Blake, sus experiencias vitales y su extraña relación con su hijo discapacitado. No sé si consigue su objetivo. La trama narrativa es muy difusa y algunas analogías parecen un poco forzadas, y, por supuesto, no faltan fragmentos eróticos o referencias a la turbulenta década de los 70 en Tokio. No me arrepiento de haberlo leído, pero me deja un sabor agridulce.
Eso sí, el final me parece muy bueno.

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Há pouco de “manual de definições do mundo, da sociedade e do ser humano” e muito de texto ensaístico sobre Blake. Quando as insuficiências e excessos se encontram numa tentativa de livro de memórias com foco na paternidade, aí tudo se equilibra e dá gosto de ler.

[jmbadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

L'autor enfila fragments incomprensibles de la poesia de Blake amb expèriencies pròpies més o menys relacionades, de manera que els versos van adquirint cert sentit. No és una lectura fàcil i a cops sembla que senzillament no tinc prou capacitat per entendre'l, però llavors la sinceritat aclaparadora amb que explica la relació amb el fill et desperta una empatia brutal; i llavors torna a aparèixer Blake.

[Connor Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

To fully appreciate Kenzabuo Oe’s “Eyore” series one should first have an intimate understanding and respect for the works of William Blake; who as mentioned a fervent champion of the imaginations power to transfigure reality, to prioritize and romanticize one’s return to innocence, one of the “great life affirmers” among the ranks of Dh Lawrence, Arthur Rimbaud and Friedrich Nietzsche, those who through their poetry affirm the wild, mysterious, and marvelous ordeal of living as it is. They do not seek to escape suffering, but overcome it. This transfiguration is what Oe sets out to achieve in Rouse up O young men of the new age

Oe masterfully weaves throughout the narrative a force of imagination in re contextualizing the circumstance of his severely handicapped son, his own circumstance as well as their collective circumstance as father and son. It’s important to note that while this book is a work of fiction, it is clearly inspired by Oe’s actual experience with his son in real life who has severe autism.

While at times repetitive, the way Oe can relate a price of Blake’s poetry to transform his perceived truths never gets old and failed never to put a smile on my face. While admittedly a stretch at times, others times the connection is beautifully obvious even to a novice reader of Blake. The premise being that our narrator is at attempting to create a sort of guidebook to life that his son will be able to intimately understand in his own terms, and as mentioned in the afterword the son ends up the teacher at this later junction in the series, the lessons he delivers are about discovering the promise of renewal in a cruel and apparently unredeemable world. There is so much to cover in this work, “teach us to outgrow or madness” and “a personal matter” along with some Blake is encouraged before approaching this novel.


“Every man has the right to his own illusions even if they are nothing more than that, and the right to express them powerfully. And the fair Moon rejoices in the clear & cloudless night; For Empire is no more, and now the Lion & Wolf shall cease.’”


“Then first I saw him in the Zenith as a falling star,
Descending perpendicular , swift as the swallow or swift;
And on my left foot falling on the tarsus, enter’s there”

-William Blake “Milton”

[Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book by Kenzaburo Oe could be regarded as another fictive work depicting how he and his family have nurtured his son Eeyore "born with a brain anomaly that has left him mentally disabled" (front flap); I first came across this name 'Eeyore' in one of his short novels entitled "Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness". To cope with this lingering, enigmatic problem, he has interestingly weaved his tormenting plight with the poetry by William Blake empowered by his fatherly care and willingness to help his son to interact, communicate and live in the world. Satisfactorily printed in sufficiently large fonts (no font size data available on the page facing the Contents), this novel was inspiringly readable, humorous and applicable in terms of Oe's unique capability in citing various lines from Blake to support or solve the protagonist's truamatic experience. Therefore, it was interesting to know why and how K (the father) has kept nurturing his dear son with all of his right and might; without any negative tendency to solve the problem mercilessly like those convicted parents imprisoned in many countries in the world. Furthermore, Oe himself has since been admired by the Nobel committee regarding his intrepid revelation on his brain-damaged son as well as how and why he has done his best to nurture him with full support from his wife and children. In essence, I think he is one of the great exemplary fathers in Japan and the world should learn from what he has done and written for his readers to read, think and do something in the name of parental care that wisely includes appropriate proportions of I.Q., E.Q., M.Q., A.Q. and R.Q.

As for William Blake's biography, please visit this website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_... for our background understanding on his life, poetry and key works.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting--his method of interaction with Blake was very alien (not sure if it's a cultural thing, a poet vs. fiction writer thing, or just a very different readerly interaction), but I enjoyed the novelty of the narrative structure and the main character's very personal/intimate incorporation of Blake's poetry.

Didn't like how claustrophobic the main character, K, gets...obviously, in first-person narratives it's common for the narrative to focus in, sometimes in the extreme, on the values/thoughts/perspective of the narrator. Even though this is a very personal narrative, mainly focusing on how K feels about his handicapped son, himself, his own mortality, and his private readings of Blake...sometimes I thought the narrator revealed himself to be a little over-enamored of his own perspective and a little under-attentive to outside influences, other family members, etc. It's sometimes as if nobody else in the book is even a fully formed human being.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kenzaburō Ōe's novel, Rouse Up, O young Men of the New Age, is a thin and scattered novel as novels go. The storyline jumps from past to present and principal characters to one-off characters, which creates a stop and go quality that isn't enjoyable to read. The tale has to do with the father, a writer, who has a severely limited son, and the writer's interactions with the son that help the writer understand the full meaning of human existence -- as in meaning not limited to the rational. As a guide to understanding, the writer employs Blake's poetry and commentaries on Blake's poetry that is apposite but Blake being Blake is strangely phrased, "prophetic," and preachy.

With considerable skill Ōe jams all this into his essayistic, memoir-like novel. Everything hangs together, including the many dreams the writer recounts, but the effect is stiff.

[Uwe Hook · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a lot of references to the works by William Blake, which makes it a difficult read, unless you are a scholar of Blake's work. Additionally, Oe explains the writings of Blake and combines it with how it teaches him to understand his handicapped child. The novel feels like an odd mix of autobiography and fiction, can come across as pretentious.

[Ricardo Martini Kato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definir o mundo. Afinal o que é esse mundo? Tendo um filho nascido com deficiência, Kenzaburo busca elucidar o mundo que nos cerca. O que é sentir medo? Emoção? Sonhar? São sentimentos primitivos? Aonde iremos parar? Jovens de um novo tempo, despertai! não irá te trazer respostas para essas perguntas, mas com certeza te dará o caminho básico de onde começar.

[Ricardo Grejo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kazuo Oe nos oferece uma escrita de tonalidade profundamente "oral", onde revela o íntimo de sua vida, sempre permeada pela influência constante de William Blake, quase como uma bebida viciante que não se deixa evitar. O livro explora, com uma linguagem cheia de floreios e metáforas, a relação do autor com seu filho deficiente, Hikari, que ao longo da narrativa é chamado carinhosamente de Iiyo, seu apelido de infância. Por meio dessa relação, Oe mergulha em diversas facetas da natureza humana, abordando temas como a morte, os sonhos, a imaginação e o sexo. A obra nos mostra de que maneira o filho, com sua maneira única de compreender o mundo, oferece conforto a Kazuo e sua esposa, sugerindo que Iiyo, apesar das dificuldades, crescerá e terá uma vida "normal".

Um ponto alto do livro é a ambientação. Oe descreve de forma rica, mas com um certo grau de confusão, o cenário do Japão pós-guerra. Como grande ativista do pacifismo, da reconstrução japonesa e do discurso anti-nuclear, Oe nos dá vislumbres de personagens fundamentais para o renascimento cultural do Japão, sem, no entanto, mencioná-los diretamente. Ao omitir os nomes de figuras históricas como Yukio Mishima e Edward Said, o autor evita que a narrativa seja distraída por detalhes históricos e mantém o foco nas reflexões pessoais e filosóficas.

Para leitores mais curiosos, como eu, que têm o hábito de buscar cada detalhe, há um jogo fascinante: as figuras históricas são mencionadas apenas por iniciais. O mistério de suas identidades instiga uma caça ao tesouro literária, levando o leitor a explorar mais a fundo o contexto histórico e cultural do Japão pós-império.

Minha sugestão é deixar-se levar pela curiosidade. Busque as pinturas de Blake, explore as composições de Toru Takemitsu e leia os textos de Mishima. Tenho certeza de que isso abrirá uma rica porta de entrada ao universo da literatura japonesa.

Confesso que, inicialmente, não me senti conquistado pela obra. No entanto, ao reinterpretá-la como uma profunda reflexão filosófica sobre o que significa criar uma família, fui fisgado de tal maneira que devorei suas 300 páginas em poucos dias. Oe, com sua habilidade única, consegue, ao final, transformar a obra em uma experiência literária imersiva e profundamente humana.

Lido em Língua Portuguesa - edição de 2006 publicado pela Companhia das Letras com tradução do japonês de Leiko Gotoda

[Giovanni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not hugely familiar with William Blake, and while this book did convince me he’s a vastly interesting figure with a lot to say, the poetry of his quoted here didn’t have as much of an effect on me as it clearly did on Oē.

I really appreciated the authorial style here. I’m sure it could come across to some as meandering and self-indulgent, but the decision to draw together memory, present happening, and literary criticism (of Blake, Mishima, and Oē’s own work) I found very effective. Of special interest in this regard are two scenes:

Firstly, when Eeyore is drowning on the 10th anniversary of Mishima’s seppuku, and some of Mishima’s adherents heroically save him. The narrator here is confronted by the idea that there might be something in Mishima that he himself lacks, as he was too paralyzed by the thought of the adherents attacking him for his anti-Mishima sentiments to notice his drowning son.

Secondly, the scene in the bark factory is beautiful, and uses Blake very effectively when the narrator reimagines how things would have played out if the imperial surrender had occurred at that moment, with the first becoming last and the last becoming first.

Persuasive throughout the book also is the narrator (who is a fictionalized version of Oē) describing his writing process and the life events that inspired scenes in his past novels. Why this is so interesting is because the events in the narrator’s life are actually not accurate portrayals of Oē, and so we have this weirdly filtered through explanation. Additionally, while the narrator is self-critical, he has some obvious flaws that he does not comment on (namely his relationship with his wife and two younger children), and what Or chooses to reproduce of himself without commentary speaks volumes.


Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book and I’ll surely read more of Oē in the future.

[Hayden Fitzsimons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up and The Pinch Runner Memorandum for $3 each on a whim. I’ve found that Japanese writers are among my favorites, and his name being Japanese and also vaguely familiar along with having a very interesting title made this an obvious purchase. I’ve found however, that I have almost a total aversion to autobiographical and memoir books; I’m very interested in non-fiction, often more than fiction, but I find writing about someone, especially by that someone, to be invariably less interesting than that person’s more inventive/creative fiction or non-fiction work. Put simply, I’d rather read the writer than read about the writer. Having read the blurb on the back of this I knew I was going into what was likely a very personal and self-reflective story but to the degree that it was I did not at all expect. Truthfully, I was expecting a book much more in line with the films of Michael Haneke, something like Funny Games in particular. And in total honesty I am not particularly sure why this faux-memoir-non-non-fiction managed to work on me, but it really did. I held back tears at multiple moments, and felt an odd kinship with Oe alongside a begrudging distaste for him. I also have had a vague interest in Blake for a while now, and this served as a window into that world that I’m yet to explore. In general, this book acted as fuel for many questions about myself as well as a motivation to write and to learn, and to grow older.

[Larsen Puch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Del afamado escritor japonés, solamente había leído Una cuestión personal, relato que me deslumbró totalmente. Ahora he podido disfrutar de esta novela profundamente humanista. Kenzaburo Oé, básicamente, nos cuenta su propia vida, en su rol de padre de familia e intelectual. K. es un escritor que estudia a Blake con rigor y pasión.  El estudio de Blake no tiene, sin embargo, una finalidad exclusivamente académica. El narrador-autor enlaza el estudio del poeta británico con su propia vida familiar, donde la figura del hijo mayor, quien padece una extraña enfermedad mental, ocupa gran parte de su relato. Con un estilo sereno y reflexivo, el narrador nos entrega detalles relevantes de su vida familiar y académica, además de la dimensión política y social que asume como un escritor comprometido con el desarme nuclear, la paz y el futuro de la humanidad. Oé narra con sutileza, precisión e inteligencia. Es capaz de hacernos empatizar con sus vivencias personales, nos ayuda a comprender e interesarnos en sus afanes académicos, al tiempo que nos involucra en acontecimientos propios del mundo contemporáneo. Oé combina con maestría erudición, sensibilidad y espíritu crítico. Un libro hermosamente peculiar y altamente recomendable para quienes valoran la literatura y su aporte para la comprensión del mundo y del ser humano.

[hailttthief M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

La acción de evocar es sin duda uno de los elementos centrales que perfilan lo que somos. Ligada a ilusiones perdidas o latentes, rodean cuanto tocamos, desde nuestras lecturas a los sueños que nos someten todas las noches. Es precisamente evocar el elemento principal desde dónde parte Oe en este sugerente título. El escritor japonés vierte sus dogmas vitales aquí, al son de sus cambiantes relecturas de Blake. Para Oe la vida es un constante volver atrás en el que comprender esto a través de la memoria y las experiencias nos define como seres humanos.
Eyore, su hijo con discapacidad intelectual, supone un reto, es fuente de dependencia y disrupción, es inocencia prístina e irradiadora de felicidad. Descubrir a Eyore y su capacidad o (in)capacidad de dar forma a sus experiencias alterará la percepción de personalidad de Oe, especialmente con los dos bellísimos "despertares" del entrañable adolescente que se suceden en sendos capítulos finales.
El relato puede adolecer de cierta fragmentariedad por sus características, con su subsiguiente descompensación en el ritmo. Ello no impide que esta no sea una magnífica introducción para adentrarse en el universo de Kenzaburo Oe.

[Luis Le drac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me acabo de mochar el final de ¡Despertad, oh jóvenes de la nueva era! de Oé que comenzó muy bien y que ha ido a menos porque su hilo argumental no supone grandes avances. Ya sabemos de la obsesión/preocupación del escritor por su hijo discapacitado que lo ha convertido en el centro de todas sus tribulaciones (y novelas). Pues bien, me parece interesante la tesis que se plantea aquí que, al igual que en otras, gira en torno, en un principio, al dolor que supuso para su familia el nacimiento de su hijo y de cómo, de este dolor, floreció posteriormente una alegría. El tópico del patito feo, pero llevado a rango filosófico. Su hijo como estigma deflagrador que, poco a poco, va a servir de alfiler para coser esa cicatriz doliente que les produjo él mismo y que va a ser luz sanadora para Kenzaburo y toda su familia. Todo esto ornado con versos de Blake, que es complejo de la leche y que es su poeta de cabecera. La idea del libro muy buena. La ejecución, ditirámbica. Sus primeras cien páginas muy vatizinantes, pero bien es cierto que me ha agotado, que esa lentitud oriental, que macera y pausa la trascendencia del texto convergen en un punto inmóvil.

[Sequoyah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prime candidate for my least favorite title for a novel.

This is a profoundly self-reflective work of fiction. Oe takes aspects of what I loved about his A Personal Matter—namely the self-effacing introspection that makes him a keen explorer of human nature—and does something completely different. This is not necessarily a novel tied to any plot, it is an autobiographical work of anecdotes surrounding his mentally challenged son becoming an adult, with the poet William Blake superimposed on Oe’s perspective of these stories. Often, he devolves into what seem to be essays on Blake’s life and work. It is both a love letter to his son and the poet.

A unique work, where some profound moments touched me personally, but the sum of the parts were not as strong as I had hoped it to be. Not at all recommended to a first time Oe reader. This book is highly referential to his other works, and almost expects you to know Oe and his son intimately already.

[Ann Straight · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me several weeks of reading, certainly not a novel aiming at plot but rather one emphasizing relationship and character and spirituality of a father working through the coming of age of his brain damaged son. Oe's actual son, Hikari, his eldest, had less growth than the boy Eeyore in the story. This is a coming of age story, certainly, but also an ageless story of a parent's love, concerns and protection of a child, regardless of society's opinions on the matter.

Kenzaburō, refers to William Blake's poetry, to reflect upon his child. He also reflects upon his own viewpoint of the nuclear world his children were born into. The spiritual aspect of the book left me confused perhaps due to my limits of understanding Blake and mythology. I feel a need to read a child's book on William Blake, if I can find it!

Worth reading for it's literature value, not a common novel.

[Carlos Colomer conesa · Rating 2 out of 5]

El libro se me ha hecho denso y aburrido casi todo el tiempo. Al comienzo del libro sobre todo utiliza frases largas y complejas a las que cuesta seguir el hilo. Las partes más amenas son cuando está contando anécdotas e historias de la vida con su hijo.
De alguna manera el autor siente que Blake (poeta inglés por el que ha sentido fascinación toda su vida) ha ejercido también una influencia sobre su relación con su hijo.
Blake, política y su vida con su hijo son los temas sobre los que gira la novela. En mi opinión, no acaba de empastar. Hay muchas aristas. Más que una novela se parece a un ensayo.

[Robin K · Rating 2 out of 5]

This just wasn’t the book for me. Oe’s novel is a first person account of an author’s reflections on life with his disabled son intertwined with his past work and the poetry of Blake. I don’t know much about Blake so that had no deep meaning for me, and otherwise, whether it was the translation from Japanese, the formal nature of Japanese culture generally, or how the author’s reflections were relatively removed from the emotion of the situation, I didn’t feel the humanity in this. I hate to critique a Nobel Prize winner so harshly, but maybe other works of his would be more moving.

[Nicté Reyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Siendo honestos y dejando de lado la cursilería social, convertirse en padre puede ser uno de los acontecimientos más catastróficos en la vida de cualquier persona. El hijo primogénito de Kenzaburō Ōe nació con una deformidad que resultó en una posterior discapacidad y en este bello libro nos regala parte de su experiencia, cruda y mortificante, pero también hermosa. Un bello ejemplo del arte como oráculo, puente y asidero.