Oe, Kenzaburo

Tokyo. 1974. Kodansha. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 0870112325. Translated from the Japanese by John Bester. 274 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by S. Katakura, adapted from the print Face (Last Moments before Death) by Tomio Kinoshita. keywords: Literature Translated Japan Asia . FROM THE PUBLISHER - For the hero of The Silent Cry, the return of his younger brother from America is a straw that, half unwittingly, he clutches at to save himself from drowning in a flood of disaster. Reeling from a series of shocks that include the bizarre suicide of his best friend and the birth of a deformed baby that threatens to drive his wife to alcoholism, he falls in with his brother's suggestion that they all start a new life together far from the city. So begins a journey of regression for the Nedokoro family, a journey that takes it back not only to its home - to the village set in the brooding valley - but also into its own past. As the younger brother sets out to establish his own and the family's identity by reliving for himself the experiences of ancestors who lived a century ago, past interweaves with present to form a complex fabric in which ideas and action (suicide, incest, adultery, and mob violence included) are skillfully blended. The richness of this fabric allows the author to examine a wide range of contemporary problems, yet the novel is first and fbremost a tale that involves us in the fate of its central triangle of two men and one woman. With a striking power of imagery, in a succession of memorable scenes and atmospheres, it moves inexorably toward its shattering climax. Ultimately, it is Oe's ability to awaken echoes in the very depths of the human subconscious that has made him one of the best known of Japanese novelists, not only in his own country but in the West as well. The Silent both imaginatively and formally, is his most daring and powerful work to date. inventory #5928 ISBN: 0870112325.