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“it was kind of hard book to read because it used old japanese, but still it was an interesting story.”
Indi E wrote this review Sunday, October 11 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“JCU selection”
Krystine S wrote this review Tuesday, August 25 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Who doesn't love this book? The title story sums up everything there is to know about the human condition. OK, not completely, but pretty close.”
Eileen M wrote this review Thursday, July 30 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Akutagawa Ryūnosuke is a Japanese master of the form. In his hands, a short story is a short story. That is to say, it is quick. His words are efficient, without sacrificing the complexity of a plot. His tales are suffused with nuance and concrete details. His themes are large themes. His main concerns are basic. He is interested in the ambiguities of human choice, the uncontrollable passions suddenly flaring, the travails of the outcast, and the futility of moral justifications.
Rise wrote this review Wednesday, July 15 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“In a Grove” is the first story in the book Rashōmon and Other Stories. My copy is a reprint of the second edition of the book first published by Charles E. Tuttle Company in 1952. It contains six pieces, all translated by Takashi Kojima, and with an introduction by Tanizaki’s translator Howard Hibbett.
In the book's preface, Takashi Kojima said that the six stories are selected with the aim of collecting the “finest and most representative writings” of Akutagawa. For a prolific writer such as Akutagawa, a mere representation of his best works in six servings, out of the more than a hundred stories he completed, appears to be non-representative at all. But there can be no doubt that the six pieces – six master pieces – are among his finest. Any collection that contains the first two in this book, “In a Grove” and “Rashōmon,” is a book to be treasured. Though it does not contain his other famous stories (“Hell-Screen” and “The Nose”), the book is a perfect sampler of Akutagawa’s literary output.
In the first story, the characters are consumed by the need to explain or justify their behavior before the High Police Commissioner, to bear witness to something they have “seen.” The reader "acts" as the Commissioner who listens to all the versions of the story. Each version is tailored in such a way that it casts its teller in the role of the underdog or the wronged.
My complete review can be found here: http://booktrek.blogspot.com/2009/07/rashomon-and-other-stories-akutagawa_15.html
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“This is an esteemed and unprecedented collection of translated works by one of the meteoric stars of modern Japanese literature. But vital as well, this book brings together three heavyweights of Japanese literature: Akutagawa himself; Jay Rubin, a most eminent translator of outstanding Japanese literary works to English; and the current enfant terrible of Japanese literature, Haruki Murakami, who writes a most engaging introduction to this anthology.
Joel G wrote this review Friday, March 13 2009. ( reply | view 1 replies | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Akutagawa may well have been made a household name outside of Japan due to the critical success of the movie "Rashomon" by the master Japanese filmmaker, the late Akira Kurosawa. But the film bears no resemblance to Akutagawa's similarly-titled short story. It is another story by Akutagawa, "In a Bamboo Grove"--which folllows "Rashomon" in this collection--from which the theme of Kurosawa's gem is drawn.
This collection proves why Akutagawa's place in the firmament of Japanese literature is well-deserved. He is indeed a master storyteller of the Japanese milieu. He is famed--and rightly so--for his modern folktales of a bygone era of Japan, many of which have been taught at the primary educational level and is thus well-remembered by millions of Japanese who have gone through school. Many of these tales tend to feature grotesque characters, but this may well be part of Akutagawa's polished storytelling technique.
While these tales capture vividly scenes of pre-modern Japan, the themes they carry find relevance in Akutagawa's own period, which was during the period of modernism and liberalism of the Taisho period (1912-1926), after Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War and right at the cusp of the emergence and eventual dominance of fascism and militarism. Akutagawa's accomplishment is even more impressive given that his mainstream storywriting covered just about twelve years, from around the time "Rashomon" was first published (though it did not receive wide acclaim yet then) until his suicide in 1927,
Akutagawa is quite fortunate to have found an outstanding translator of his works to English in Jay Rubin. The translator and editor of this compilation, Jay Rubin demonstrates in this compilation his conscientious advocacy of Japanese literature and of Akutagawa. He has not only brought together a compilation of Akutagawa's short stories without precedent, as this includes some of Akutagawa's little-known works. Rubin also provided most relevant information to add the proper context to and enrich our understanding of both the author and his works. He has included a chronology of Akutagawa's life, a list of further readings, and notes on Japanese name order and pronunciation. To facilitate the reader's appreciation of Akutagawa and his works, Rubin has divided the eighteen stories in this collection into four sections: "A World in Decay", "Under the Sword", "Modern Tragicomedy", and "Akutagawa's Own Story". And he has judiciously included relevant endnotes to the stories. All in all, Rubin's informed scholarship shows through and lends great weight to the usefulness of this compilation to understanding Akutagawa's place in Japanese modern literature.
As if that's not enough, the cherry on top of this luscious literary offering is the meaty introduction written by Haruki Murakami, who may well be the current icon of 21st-century popular Japanese literature. Murakami provides a compelling sweep of modern Japanese literary writing, daring even to make a list of "top ten Japanese writers of national stature" (though he can only come up with nine names). Through his examination of Akutagawa's brief tortured life and exemplary literary lifework, we are also treated to Murakami's take on the dynamic between Japanese literature and Japanese society, focusing on that interesting interregnum of Japanese history known as Taisho democracy.
Penguin Classics has scored a coup with this selection. This is a must-read for anyone seeking a good introduction to modern Japanese literature.”
“An uneven collection but excellent overall, particularly Rashomon. A fine translation also. A great introduction by Murakami that alone makes it worth getting this edition.”
John C. Stepper wrote this review Wednesday, December 31 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Akutagawa's portrayal of human journey, perhaps man's inevitable conversion from good to evil in this short story, i find very disturbing. I admire his genius, the literary values in this fiction, his archetypal character protagonist, the Servant; he proves himself weak and vulnerable in the face of hunger, poverty. The tower that houses the unclaimed corpses as the Servant's point of departure from being a virtuous man to being a savage creature helps in setting the mood and theme of the story. It is truly a Naturalist text. ”
Joanne wrote this review Friday, May 30 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
