Customer Reviews

A Healing Family

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Hard to believe that no one else has written a review of this book because it is excellent... Oe's manner of dealing with his son's affliction and the effects it has on his family is truly amazing... His manner is truly one of love and serenity.... Without any reservations, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about "heart"...

Kenzaburo Oe, the Japanese novelist who won the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature, was 28 when his son, Hikari, was born. This event was the most important in Oe's life. Born with a herniated brain, Hikari has needed almost constant care since birth. "A Healing Family" is Oe's first non-fiction attempt to make sense of Hikari's life and the effect it has had on the people around him, most importantly his family.

This beautiful book shows the profound love, affection and pride the Oe family take in Hikari's accomplishments and happiness. From the age of five, Hikari has been obsessed with classical music, and eventually began to compose pieces for piano and violin. Much of "A Healing Family" concerns Oe's attempts to understand his son through music.

"A Healing Family" is a book everyone should read. Finely crafted, perceptive, intelligent and moving, it shows us again that compassion and empathy can make all the difference in the world.

My first book by Kenzaburo was Silent Cry. Recently I read A Healing Family and found that I really liked it a lot. Yukari's illustrations were beautiful. This book made me feel closer to Oe's family. It is very heart-warming.

At the time I read it, I was in the process of deciding whether to get my wisdom teeth extracted by a dentist or an oral surgeon. I heard that my face would be bruised and swollen, my jaws unhinged, etc. after the surgery. It was quite unnerving just to think about it. Then I read that Hikari has to make weekly visits to the dentist, and that his epileptic pills make his gum terribly swollen. I felt that I am in a much much better situation than some people. It was a consolation to read this book.

One thing I don't quite like about most of Kenzaburo's books is that he refers to a lot of other European writers and their works, which I find hard to understand. Well, that's just my ignorance.

"A Healing Family" is a healing book. The spirit that pervades this book brings peace and calm, as it models acceptance of life when it does not go along with our well-made plans.

In this slender book, Kenzaburo Oe, the Nobel prize winner in literature, shares how his family is living a fine life, despite, or perhaps because of the fact that one member of the family, his son Hikari, has a somewhat severe mental handicap.

Kenzaburo's first reaction to the revelation that his son would always require a lot of care had been to run away. He was a young, ambitious, writer who had definite dreams and plans about his future, and those dreams and plans didn't include a mentally challenged son. He did not want this problem.

His attitude changed after some conversations with a Hiroshima survivor, a physician, who had lived through that horror and had cared for the wounded, for many years still. Somehow, through the friendship and conversations with this physician and others, Oe was able to realize that the only way to survive the terrible hand he was dealt was to accept what he had been given and deal with it as graciously and serenely as he could.

As he has gone about doing that, Oe has been the father that his son needed. His son Hikari has been able to enjoy life in the bosom of a loving family, and has developed his talent for composing music, and is enjoying life. In return, his son has become a creative focus of his life and writing. Kenzaburo Oe himself has been able to reach the highest peaks of recognition for a writer, winning the Nobel prize. But this book shows he has achieved even greater heights than that. He has become a very fine person, who shines through the writing. His book has a very healing effect on the human spirit. His writing here is smooth and polished, very easy to read, and a perfect vehicle for the beautiful spirit he displays. There are simple but beautiful drawings by the author's wife strewn throughout that add to the feeling of the book.

This is not a preachy book, but does show through the telling of their ordinary life how a life that can be a disaster in less capable hands, can be lived serenely and successfully. A quiet, meditative, book, like a Japanese Zen garden, this book depicts a life where forces of chaos have been tamed. A certain serenity and order has settled over their lives, and it is a wonderful thing to behold. Highly recommend.