There's so many nations out there producing great - and not so great - literature and of course I've love to read as much from each. It's just that there's so much that it's either a case of specialising or sampling. I think I'm more of the latter.
And one nation's literature I've sampled a few more than others is Japan, albeit in small one-book-per-author bites.
Murakami Haruki, with Dance Dance Dance, left me indifferent to ever wanting to read him again. Likewise some of the short stories of Akutagawa Ryūnosuke. Mishima Yukio, on the other hand, left me with a desire to go on and read everything he wrote (and a couple of years on, I haven't.
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Recent reads this year have been Murakami Ryu and Kanehara Hitomi, both who seem to inhabit some torture-noir niche. Both are also winners of Japan's much sought after Akutagawa Prize, which is awarded twice a year. And planned reads for the future include Yoshimura Akira's Shipwrecks and one of a couple of Sōseki Natsume novels.
Going back to the Akutagawa Prize, it has also been won Abe Kobo, Ōe Kenzaburo, Endō Shūsaku, and Inoue Yasushi, but looking at the list of winners it seems safe to assume that, other than the aforementioned six, few others make the crossover from Japanese to English.
In Kawabata Yasunari and Ōe Kenzaburo, Japan also has two Nobel laureates. And thanks to the Japanese Literature Publishing Project we stand to see more Japanese literature in the coming years.
So, what's your experience of Japanese literature? Read much? Got recommendations?
And one nation's literature I've sampled a few more than others is Japan, albeit in small one-book-per-author bites.
Murakami Haruki, with Dance Dance Dance, left me indifferent to ever wanting to read him again. Likewise some of the short stories of Akutagawa Ryūnosuke. Mishima Yukio, on the other hand, left me with a desire to go on and read everything he wrote (and a couple of years on, I haven't.
)Recent reads this year have been Murakami Ryu and Kanehara Hitomi, both who seem to inhabit some torture-noir niche. Both are also winners of Japan's much sought after Akutagawa Prize, which is awarded twice a year. And planned reads for the future include Yoshimura Akira's Shipwrecks and one of a couple of Sōseki Natsume novels.
Going back to the Akutagawa Prize, it has also been won Abe Kobo, Ōe Kenzaburo, Endō Shūsaku, and Inoue Yasushi, but looking at the list of winners it seems safe to assume that, other than the aforementioned six, few others make the crossover from Japanese to English.
In Kawabata Yasunari and Ōe Kenzaburo, Japan also has two Nobel laureates. And thanks to the Japanese Literature Publishing Project we stand to see more Japanese literature in the coming years.
So, what's your experience of Japanese literature? Read much? Got recommendations?
