Customer Reviews

The MUSIC OF LIGHT: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF HIKARI AND KENZABURO OE

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

 

 

This is the best book I've read this year. It covers so much: a family's love for their brain damaged child and their commitment to the grueling, challenging years raising him in a society that wants him to just disappear. It is at once literary criticism, classical music criticism, cultural commentary, biography, pschology, psychiatry, medicine and a touchingly told love story between man and son. By the end of this book you will have fallen in love with Hikari the sweet savant from Kobe and his wonderful father, Kenzaburo.

I think the 5 stars are more for Hikari and Kenzaburo Oe than the author. Not that the books isn't well written, it is or I would feel so compelled to give Hikari and Kenzburo the 5 stars. The discussion of Kenzaburo's literary works gets a bit long for my taste, but they are critical to understanding the story of this family, the difficult decision of whether to try to save a child that will never grow up to be "normal", whether to defy the customs of the day that keep the handicapped hidden and treated as shameful, the burden that the decision becomes to the family, and the child who becomes an astonishing popular composer of classical music despite his mental and physical handicaps.

Having read the book I want to hear Hikari's music and read Kenzaburo's novels. But mostly I wish I could give them a hug for defying conventions and showing the world, for giving hope to all who struggle with handicaps that they too can be wonderful.