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Japanese must reads

Tale of genij - follows the political rise, love affairs, and social codes surrounding the title character Hikaru Genji. 

No longer human -Oba Yozo's attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a 'clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult.

Kitchen-juxtaposes two tales about mothers, love, tragedy, and the power of the kitchen and home in the lives of a pair of free-spirited young women in contemporary Japan. (Plus has a trans character)

That's all for now!



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Reply by jan

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whats your opinion on haruki murakami? i havent read any of his works, but heard a lot of good stuff about him :)


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Reply by Hyacinth

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I've read a few works short works by Yukio Mishima which were pretty good, although I had to look up the meanings behind a couple of them because they wouldn't have made sense unless I was a native Japanese person. Like the story "Thermos Flasks", for example, which went completely over my head. I've also read around 1/3rd of 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, but put it down for a while because it was getting a little too graphic for me. The writing and story were fantastic though, and I would recommend it to anyone who may be interested.


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Reply by saroyan °

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i have a link for the 1987 anime film of genji monogatari if you would like it! it only covers the first 12 chapters of the story, though! but it's very beautiful!

another comment in this recommended yukio mishima. i love his "confessions of a mask"! very well told and you will find that it's very similar to "no longer human", but with a liiiiiiiittle bit more war and homosexuality (HURRAH to this last one!!!)

will stay tuned for some more of your recommendations!

=saroyan


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