Book Condition: As New. Serpent's Tail Classic Paperback First Edition, First Printing. This translation originally published: Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1974; London: Serpent's Tail, 1988. Language note: Translated from the Japanese. Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.7 x 7.8 inches. Weight: 5.6 ounces. Two brothers, Takashi and Mitsu, return from Tokyo to the village of their childhood. Selling their family home leads them to an inescapable confrontation with their family history. Their attempt to escape the influence of the city ends in failure as they realize that its tentacles extend to everything in the countryside, including their own relationship. In 1994, Kenzaburo Oe was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Singling out The Silent Cry, the Nobel Committee stated that 'his poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament'. Kenzaburo Oe is one of the great writers of the century and The Silent Cry is his masterpiece. It questions the stories and histories that build our identity. In the story we learn that what really happened in the past is not nearly as important as what people think happened, and the lies our myths perpetuate. We are at the mercy of our history. We are controlled, not by the Gods, but by the stories of our past. At another level, "The Silent Cry" can be read as a study of an insular nation coping with the rising tide of foreign influences that threatens the old way of life. It's incredibly rich in its treatment of a universal theme that will guarantee its relevance forever. Oe writes with a rare intensity that perfectly captures the strangeness and beauty of the Japanese psyche. It's an awesome landmark of a novel that no serious lover of literature can afford to miss. Some may find "The Silent Cry" a dark and disturbing piece of work. Perhaps it is. But it's essential reading.
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