Re: translating
Tim O'Connor (oconnort@nyu.edu)
Tue, 19 Oct 1999 10:44:27 -0400
On Mon, Oct 18, 1999 at 05:18:32AM +0100, Colin wrote:
> According to an article in the New Yorker he is sometimes criticised in
> Japan for being too Western.
Yes; I believe that same article detailed his decision that HE HIMSELF
had become too westernized and had strayed too far from his Japanese
roots, which is why he left the U.S. and returned to Japan. If my
faulty memory is accurate, his pending work actually, to some degree,
has a certain hostility toward the U.S. and its culture.
> Another great contemporary Japanese novelist is the delightfully named
> Banana Yoshimoto. Ever read anything by her? I think she's great, and
> the name alone should recommend her to anyone on this list, but apart
> from that there is a certain Salingeresque quality to her characters who
> seem to be searching for an uncertain something in their lives.
>
> Her best books are N.P., Lizard and Kitchen.
Banana Y is wonderful! Good point to raise, Colin; I had never (d'oh;
smack self on forehead) made that connection between this list and Ms.
Banana. Her fiction is very fine. I confess that I don't like her as
much as I love the work of Madison Smartt Bell and Lorrie Moore and Rick
Bass, but I think she has a splendid future ahead of her. (I think,
after a bit of urging from Paul, that I may need to add Alice Munro to
my list of contemporary writers whose new work I automatically buy. But
I'm still working on Alice M.)
--tim
> --
> Colin