Customer Reviews

Breaking into Japanese Literature: Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is absolutely brilliant. The stories are interesting and captivating, and never too long to overtly intimidate or tire the reader. You start with really short stories, and as your confidence with reading literary Japanese increases, the stories get longer and more complicated. I have learned and cemented more from reading this novel than by any other method but emersion experiences in Japan. I have a huge collection of modern Japanese literature and, though it was inaccessible before, this novel has made reading, guessing, and understanding Japanese fiction a blast. Note: it won't stop being difficult, even after this. But the satisfaction of reading and comprehending a story in it's original language, and being able to find fault in translations and such, is a really remarkable experience.

Highly recommended, and I hope to see a volume 2! I would buy it in a heartbeat!

This book went beyond my expectations. First of all, let me say that you will never get frustrated while reading this. All the information you need is right there, including definitions of the words, furigana, and the english translation. It is also nice that they place the english on the right side of the book while the japanese is on the left, which makes it easier not to cheat while reading but still keeps the english conveniently close. The words' definitions are on the bottom of the page, which makes them easy to find so you don't have to go looking up words in a dictionary or in the back.

Another extremely useful aspect is the kanji listing number. This is in conjunction with The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary. Beside the kanji listed underneath the text is a number in brackets which indicates the number in the Kanji Learner's Dictionary so you can easily look up the kanji. It is really quite convenient.

The overall stories are also fascinating and not at all childish as one might imagine. They are twisted and mysterious, and hold your interest easily. Yet they are short enough to reduce any feelings of boredom or fatigue you might feel from the effort of reading the text. As mentioned, the stories begin short and easy and progress into longer, more complicated text. Beautiful, laudable choices for study.

Finally, the ability to download the mp3s of the spoken text draws a blissful sigh of contentment from me. Not only can you practice reading it, but listening as well. So your pronunciation does not suffer and you can improve your speaking skills.

There is nothing they could add to this book to make it any better than it already is. Buy this book and prepare to feel satisfied beyond what you expected.

There comes a time when any student of Japanese must dare to read his first book of Japanese literature in the original. "Breaking into Japanese Literature" was the perfect book to prepare me for this step. I have read many translations of modern and contemporary Japanese literature in the past few years and for every English book I read I made sure to buy the Japanese original as well (I live in Tokyo where second hand Japanese books can be found at about the 20th of the price of their translations so this is a very small investment).
Now, after spending a few weeks with Mr Murray's book I have finally broken into that unused part of my library.
I have been particularly pleased with the selection of authors and stories as I have always hoped to read Soseki and Akutagawa in Japanese. The stories are captivating, the translation is very careful and elegant and the narration provided online is a wonderful bonus. My Japanese teacher always advised me to read aloud in Japanese, the narrations provided here are not only very entertaining but also very useful.

I love this book. Where else can you expand your vocabulary, learn and retain new kanji, and develop your reading skills, all while reading a truly kick-ass story? And believe me, the stories are great. You've got "Dreams", a sometimes macabre, sometimes funny exercise in surrealism. There's "In a Grove", a page-turner of a murder mystery. My favorite is "Rashomon", which surprised me with its black humor.

I also love the fact that the book is so compact. You can read it on the train (as I do) without announcing to the world that that you're another gaijin trying to learn Japanese. This is a tool whose value far outweighs its price.

The presentation of these stories makes it possible for a Japanese student at almost any level to read and enjoy a piece of lovely literature. The only absolute necessity is to master your hiragana. There is almost no katagana and about every single kanji is translated once at the bottom of each page, where it appears. This means that you can start reading any story, and a complete translation will be there for you. Even someone who already reads Japanese without difficulty will be charmed by the stories and the corresponding well acted mp3-files, which can be downloaded on the internet.

This is easily the most interesting and well structured bilingual Japanese book I have found so far.

Ive studied Nihongo for 2 months and only know 175 kanji but bought this anyway to motivate myself. As expected, it's beyond my reading level, but I was able to recognize some kanji and get a feel for how "real" Japanese differs from the exercises in my Genki text. I'll read the easiest story again in 6 months and again in 1 year to check my progress.

The MP3 file for Soseki's "First Night" is a treat for the ears and while I only understand the 1st sentence ("I had a dream") I have a better grasp of proper Japanese pronunciation and pace --- unlike Pimsleur CDS which are artificially slow by necessity. In short, even if you're a rank beginner like me, I highly recommend buying this.

This is a great way to break into reading real Japanese books. It is rather complex though, so do not start this until you have a firm grasp on grammar. Each page will tell you all of the kanji and vocab, but too little to help explain quirks of grammar.

All of the stories have their readings posted on the books website. This is great! As you can work on your listening and reading. I recommend this book for all students, but if you are just starting, you can wait. However, eventually you will want this book. The sooner you start trying to read real Japanese, the sooner you will be able to.

This book is an excellent aid for inforcing knowledge of Japanese grammar. On every page, there is a section that lists almost all the words in the order they first appear, their readings, and their translations. I personally find myself in the habit of always looking at this mini-dictionary whether I know the words or not. The English version of the story is translated to the more fluid side than literal side. I like to see if how they translated each sentence is how I would have, and with every word's meaning right there all that is left is to understand the grammar.

The book states that these versions of the stories were chosen for their moden Kanji use. I have come across several words using different kanji than I am used, and even some words using Kanji that I never knew had Kanji. Luckily I have a friend and teacher to ask questions. Often he tells me that those Kanji could be used that way but that they rarely are. Sometimes he is suprised by the use of Kanji altogether.

If nothing else, these are classic Japanese stories, in actual Japanese writings, with downloadable readings by a native speaker. And they are interesting, good reads. I only give the book 4 stars instead of 5 due to: uncommon Kanji use, artistic licence with the English, convenient current meanings in the dictionary, and the occasional forgotten word from the mini-dictionary.

This book will not only introduce you to classics of Japanese literature, it helps you build up your vocabulary. I've tried reading books searching for the words I don't understand in a dictionary which is a good way of studying although it is quite tedious. This book has a definition and reading for all words written in kanji as well as difficult words and frases written in kana on the same page as the text. I think Akutagawa Ryunosuke and Natsume Soseki's work does not need to be reviewed- these classics are to Japanese readers what Shakespeare is to English-speakers.

The vocabulary list and the english translation make these japanese stories easy to read and also makes it possible to verify your understanding of the japanese texts. The soundfiles that can be downloaded from the internet make this a great listening exercise.