I looked at that category and thought, hmm, what might that be? Oh, what about The Makioka Sisters? I've been meaning to read that for over 30 years. As soon as I had that thought, I tried to bury it, because I didn't really want to read The Makioka Sisters. There are reasons why certain books don't get read, and often the reasons are valid ones. Not always -- I was beyond thrilled when I finally read Moby Dick in 2019. But often.
The Makioka Sisters -- my copy, that I've had for over 30 years -- is 530 pages of very small, translated text. On the front cover it says, "Japan's greatest post-war novel... A vast and varied picture of the declining glory of a great Osaka merchant family on the eve of war." On the back cover there is a picture of the author, Junichiro Tanizaki (or, more correctly, Tanizaki Junichiro, but since this is an English translation they put the family name last), looking glum.
I looked at the book and thought about how much I didn't want to read it. But the thing is, I don't usually keep books around if I don't want to read them. Some people who participate in these online "challenges" apparently have stacks and stacks of unread books in their homes. I don't. If something sits in a "to-be-read" pile for too long, I figure I don't really want to read it after all, and I stick it in a Little Free Library. For me to have kept The Makioka Sisters for over 30 years, well, I probably do kind of want to read it. Or to have read it, anyway.
So I thought, OK, I'll read The Makioka Sisters and I'll also read classics of Japanese-American literature, and that'll kind of go with the last two years of reading first Black literature and then Native American literature. But as I started looking around, I realized something: there's very little Japanese-American literature until the last few decades (which wouldn't count, anyway). There are a few books from the 1940s on, but nothing earlier. I considered expanding the category to "Asian-American Literature," but there just isn't any early Asian-American literature of any sort. The earliest I could find was from the 1930s.
So I finally decided to read several works of classic Japanese literature and then the very few books of Japanese-American literature that were published at least 50 years ago. I still feel a little funny about my theme, not sure I really want to pursue it. But the beauty of a "challenge" like this is that it's all for me -- no one's going to come knocking at my door if I don't actually read the books. I think what's most attractive to me about this theme is that it has nothing to do with all the things I'm worried about right now. I'm hoping it will take my mind off everything else.
Like the last two years, I am planning to read the books in the order they were written (mostly), so the category numbers are all mixed up.
Pre-1900
8. Pre-1800 Classic: The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, 11th century. This is THE classic of Japanese literature and I've never read it. Seems like a good place to start. The fact that the copy I found at the library is 1155 pages -- well, at least the type is a reasonable size.
4. Classic in Translation: Five Women Who Loved Love by Saikaku Ihara, 1686. The Tale of the Heike, ca. 1371. Seven of my books are translated from the Japanese, so it was just a matter of choosing one for this category.
11. Classic Set in a Place You'd Like to Visit (real or imaginary): The Narrow Road to Oku/the Deep North by Basho, 1702 (posthumous). So here's the thing. I've been to Japan (36 years ago) and I don't have a great desire to go back. But this book describes a part of Japan I haven't visited. If I were to go back, I would want to see more of the countryside, not the big cities. Also, I'd love to see the Japan of the 1600s...
1. 19th Century Classic: Growing Up by Higuchi Ichiyo, 1895 OR Eight Dogs by Takizawa Bakin, 1841. Weirdly enough, finding something from the 1800s is a problem because there was very little good writing in Japan during that time. What there was is hard to find in translation (and I don't read Japanese, sorry). What I read for this category will depend on what I can locate. Stay tuned.
1900s
6. Mystery/Detective/Crime Classic: The Honjin Murders by Yokomizo Seishi, 1946. Don't know much about it, but it fits the category and sounds fun. Part of me wants to skip The Tale of Genji and all the rest (especially The Makioka Sisters) and just read this. I'll try not to do that.
10. Classic That's Been on Your TBR List the Longest: The Makioka Sisters by Tanizaki Junichiro, 1948. Here it is. Looks like I'll be reading it in July or August. I can hardly wait.
Japanese-American Literature
7. A Classic Short-Story Collection: Yokohama, California by Toshio Mori, 1949. This was actually supposed to be published in 1942, which is why I'm putting it first in this group. The first short-story collection by a Japanese American, set in the 1930s and early 40s.
5. Classic by a BIPOC Author: Citizen 13660 by Mine Okubo, 1946. About the internment camps, this is apparently a sort of graphic novel. All my American authors, at least, should count as BIPOC, so it was just a matter of choosing one for that category.
9. A Nonfiction Classic: Nisei Daughter by Monica Sone, 1953. A memoir of growing up in Seattle -- and then the internment camps.
2. A 20th-Century Classic: No-No Boy by John Okada, 1957. Partly about the internment camps, but I think it's more about what it was like after the camps.
3. Classic by a Woman Author: Journey to Topaz by Yoshiko Uchida, 1971. Just barely old enough to qualify. Another story of the internment camps, this is actually a children's book, but apparently a very serious, mature one.
The premise involved in this list, that classic Japanese literature has something to do with Japanese-American literature, is quite possibly false. In fact, it seems like it must be false, in which case this list makes no sense. But I think I'm going to go for it anyway. Worst case scenario, I'll read a lot of Japanese literature and a lot of Japanese-American literature and have two interesting reading experiences that have nothing to do with each other.
I have read some Japanese literature in the past (after that trip to Japan back in 1986) and that's why some major authors are missing from the list. I've read Thousand Cranes and House of the Sleeping Beauties by Yasunari Kawabata, and Thirst for Love and Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima, so I decided not to include any other Kawabata or Mishima books on my list.
I'm also a big fan of Haruki Murakami, but of course he's too modern for the Classics Challenge!
Finally, I may have some trouble finding some of these books, so I'll try to be flexible. Fortunately our library has rejoined Prospector, so I should be able to request most of these books through that. Or I may spend a lot of money buying used copies. We'll see how it goes.
No comments:
Post a Comment