The Shadow of a Blue Cat (Japanese Literature) - Softcover

Ii, Naoyuki; Lammers, Wayne P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1564786412 ISBN 13: 9781564786418

Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press, 2011

Synopsis

Businessman Yuki Yajima is fifty-one years old. He and his wife, Asako, are the parents of two daughters: Ryo, seventeen, and Yuka, an infant of only two months. Asking himself why he's allowed himself to become a father again at his age, Yuki begins to remember his uncle, who died quite young--younger, indeed, than Yuki is now. Thinking of this man, whom the young Yuki idolized, and who first introduced the boy to authors like Kenzaburo Oe and the Marquis de Sade, serves as a strange tipping point: allowing a sense of chaos and complexity back into his otherwise well-heeled life. A rare work of fiction focused simply on a man of integrity--a dying breed, in novels--"The Shadow of a Blue Cat" meticulously renders his life and opinions as Yuki tries to find a middle path between the radicalism of his uncle's life and the quiet bourgeois home he's worked so hard to build.

About this title

About the Authors

After graduating from Keio University, "Naoyuki Ii" made his debut in 1983 with "Kusakanmuri" ("The Grass Radical"), which won the Gunzo Prize for New Writers.

Sophie Refle lives in Paris. Her major translations include Hiromi Kawakami's "To Drown" and Yu Miri's "The Fish that Swims to the Rock".

Raised in Japan, Wayne P. Lammers ( Ph.D. in Japanese) taught at the university level. He was translation editor for Mangajin and is considered one of the finest translators of Japanese literature today.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1564786412
• ISBN 13: 9781564786418
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272