Here are two novels by Japan's Nobel Prize-winning author. In Seventeen, a lost young man, raised in a country which falsifies its own history, is in the throes of becoming a right-wing activist and assassin. In J, an increasingly isolated and psychotic youth takes up chikan, a game that involves sexually assaulting women on the crowded Tokyo trains.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Friction between the Public and Private Self,
This review is from: Seventeen and J: Two Novels (Paperback)
Seventeen and the two halves of J are three variations on a similar theme. In these stories, the protagonists are confronted with the realization that their private and public selves are irreconcilably different, and it is this schism that leads to the characters' self-destruction.
In Seventeen (4.5 stars), Oe masterfully portrays the story's anti-hero, a seventeen year old boy who awakens to many fears--death, status as outsider/outcast by family and peers, his own insecurity--as well as the antidote to these fears: masturbation (Oe's use of a Japanese euphemism that means "self-defilement" is telling of the protagonist's sadistic streak). In fact, the protagonist longingly states that it would be nice if life was just one long orgasm. By a few twists of fate, it is right-wing extremism that he chooses as his "suit of armor" to cover his vulnerable ego, and it is the emperor he chooses as the object of his quest for the lifelong orgasm. Oe's choice of a seventeen year old protagonist is not coincidental. This story is patterned after the murder of a left-wing politician by a seventeen year old youth. Not surprisingly, Oe's interpretation of events enflamed a passionate response from Japan's ultranationalist right who were outraged by Oe's connection between right-wing activism and the masturbation of a lonely, frightened boy. Again in J (4 stars), Oe uses sex as the vehicle for his message about the strain between acting on one's true impulses and desires and conforming to social norms and expectations. The contrast is illustrated immediately as the Tokyo-ites observe the silent, condemning crowd outside of the house of an adulterer. The scene is repeated later at J's cottage after the "free love" goings on of the young socialites is witnessed by a young boy from the village. The villagers retreat, but the damage is done. The socialites are overcome with a feeling of defilement and emptiness, crushed as a result of not meeting the expectations of a disapproving society. The second half focuses on the struggle between expression and conformity in the odd "pervert's club" of J, an old man, and a youth. At different stages, they realize that there is no compromise--they must either give in to their true nature or commit entirely to conforming to society. In the end, they all reject society and meet inglorious ends. In Seventeen and J, Oe uses rather extreme situations to highlight the difficulty or even impossibility of reconciling personal expression and social expectations. Both the vehicle and the content of Oe's message are oddly gripping and memorable. These stories will not be enjoyed by all readers, but I think they will reward those who keep an open mind and search for the meaning that Oe instills in his works.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Solemn Tightrope Walkers,
By
This review is from: Seventeen and J: Two Novels (Paperback)
This is quintessential Oe.If we fail to see ourselves reflected in society often we become outcasts or are labeled as deviant. The images of Seventeen and J are not reflexive. Therefore, by acts of violence and sexual molestation, they superimpose their images on a world which refuses to see. With Seventeen and J, Oe depicts the transmution of post-war Japan. This is cleverly evidenced by J's truncated name and the attitude of Seventeen's father. While the political aspect of Japan is more apparent in Seventeen, the politics in J are presented in a more abstract level. They have each architected an inner world populated with the shadows of despair, doubt, and disgust. Oe lets us become voyeurs of the private and sometimes painful world of these two young men who are self-described "others". Seventeen and J are both "Solemn Tightrope Walkers". Yet, what they are trying to balance is their existence in a world which they despise with a raison detre. This is demonstrated by Seventeen's fanatical involvement with a right-wing political group and J's flirtation with being a "chaikan". These two novels should be read by anyone who gives a damn or have stopped.
11 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Two Novels: J and Seventeen.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Seventeen and J: Two Novels (Paperback)
Oe Kenzaburop is a genius. I gave a copy of this book to two people-once three or four years ago to my high school English teacher, and once again this year to a fellow college student at Binghamton University.The first person liked Seventeen better. He thought the masturbation scene in Seventeen was masterful. I thought so too. The scene is supposedly the first masturbation scene in a Japanese novel, and it was enthrallingly detailed. Seventeen was a good depiction of a boy coming of age, and his confused entry into the world of Japanese politics. The second person to whom I gave the book, loved the part in which the protogonist of Seventeen kicks his sister in the face, breaking her glasses. As the first person to whom I gave the book liked Seventeen better than J, the second person to whom I gave the book liked J better than Seventeen. I too liked J better. J was a more vivid depiction of Japan and its contemporary personage's. J is written in two parts. The first part of the book takes place in the country, it presents J as a person confused about sex and his own sexuality, and at some point he even comes across as homosexual. The second part shows him in the city. He no longer contents himself with the answers life grants him, he decides to go out into the world and chance finding the sexual answers he desires by taking action. He becomes a "chikan," a sexual predator, who rides trains looking for his next victim (he exposes his naked parts to innocent train passengers, usually young school girls heading to school or returning home). Riding the trains he meets two persons with whom he will develop a great bond. This novel introduces some of the most memorable characters in fiction. In the world of Japanese literature Oe Kenzaburo ranks with Saikaku Ihara, Yasunari Kawabata, and Mishima Yukio. J is about sex, it is about the pain of being a sadist-the suffering a sadist has to go through because he is miss understood. Reading this book, and seeing the unfairness in it, is enough to make a person question the way we view people, and society for that matter. This book is essential for anyone who's interested in sex, or is just a straight out pervert. The first person to whom I gave the book was an erudite, whom I felt needed to read the book to be further learnt in literature. The second person was one who wanted me to suggest some books for him to read, for he wanted to be well-read. I felt this book was essential for such a goal.
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