Darkness in Summer

by Takeshi Kaikō and Takeshi / translated from the Japanese by Cecilia Segawa Seigle Kaiko

Book Overview

This intensely modern novel ... provides vivid insights into the alienated condition of a certain type of Japanese whom we may so often glimpse in the streets of Rome or New York--intelligent, perceptive, and desperately lost between two worlds.--Ivan Morris, author of The Nobility of Failure.

The original publication of Darkness in Summer marked the first serious work of Japanese fiction to focus on the Japanese experience...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804833257
• ISBN13: 9780804833257
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Great writer - Akutagawa prize winner

This is a modern Japanese novel set in European countries. I read it decades ago as part of my introduction to Japan. I had read Mishma; you couldn't ask for a more brilliant contrast. Kaiko (1930 - 1989) is sophisticated and nihilistic but full of gusto for life as you can see by his enthusiam for food, alcohol, sex, sleep and fishing. Though not set in Japan, it is a fine glimpse to the possibilities of Japanese cosmopolitanism of the 1970s. This book is rich with precious images and wisdom. The same may be said for "Into a Black Sun."