Sōseki - (Asia Perspectives: History, Society, and Culture) by John Nathan (Hardcover)

About the Book

John Nathan provides a lucid and vivid account of Natsume Sōseki, the father of the modern novel in Japan. This biography elevates Sōseki to his rightful place as a great synthesizer of literary traditions and a brilliant chronicler of universal experience who, no less than his Western contemporaries, anticipated twentieth-century modernism.

Book Synopsis

Natsume Sōseki (1867-1916) was the father of the modern novel in Japan, chronicling the plight of bourgeois characters caught between familiar modes of living and the onslaught of Western values and conventions. Yet even though generations of Japanese high school students have been expected to memorize passages from his novels and he is routinely voted the most important Japanese writer in national polls, he remains less familiar to Western readers than authors such as Kawabata, Tanizaki, and Mishima.

In this biography, John Nathan provides a lucid and vivid account of a great writer laboring to create a remarkably original oeuvre in spite of the physical and mental illness that plagued him all his life. He traces Sōseki's complex and contradictory character, offering rigorous close readings of Sōseki's groundbreaking experiments with narrative strategies, irony, and multiple points of view as well as recounting excruciating hospital stays and recurrent attacks of paranoid delusion. Drawing on previously untranslated letters and diaries, published reminiscences, and passages from Sōseki's fiction, Nathan renders intimate scenes of the writer's life and distills a portrait of a tormented yet unflaggingly original author. The first full-length study of Sōseki in fifty years, Nathan's biography elevates Sōseki to his rightful place as a great synthesizer of literary traditions and a brilliant chronicler of universal experience who, no less than his Western contemporaries, anticipated the modernism of the twentieth century.

Review Quotes

John Nathan has given us a robust portrayal of Sōseki's aesthetic practices and what they meant for his life and his work. His thoughtful readings, always grounded in his own aesthetic and emotional response and further honed through translation, provide an inspiring model for the Japanese literary criticism of the future.--Monumenta Nipponica

Nathan, a master translator and a gifted storyteller. . . . paints a portrait of this singular man based mostly on primary sources, accompanied by convincing textual analyses of the novelist's representative works. The result is an accessible account of a tortured, difficult, and yet ultimately irresistible soul that is touching even to those who are not yet familiar with the pleasures of Sōseki's writing.--Eri Hotta "Times Literary Supplement "

John Nathan has certainly shown in this biography why Sōseki is such an important figure in Japanese literature, as well as demonstrating that he can hold his own with the best novelists the West have to offer.--Asian Review of Books

A compelling narrative of this complicated man....Recommended.--Choice

All the varied accomplishments of this man who's often considered Japan's greatest writer, together with his many shortcomings, are put in perspective and context by literary scholar John Nathan. Sōseki: Modern Japan's Greatest Novelist provides a literary biography of the finest sort: an engaging, reasonably paced narrative of Sōseki 's life punctuated by just enough literary analysis to render the book intellectually important as well.--Hans Rollman "PopMatters "

In John Nathan's excellent and very readable new biography, Sōseki: Modern Japan's Greatest Novelist, the first English-language biography of the writer's life in fifty years, we are given a portrait of a complex, troubled individual who spent his career resisting black-and-white interpretations.--Angela Qian "Cha: An Asian Literary Journal "

A vivid portrait of Sōseki's anxious and troubled life, of his violent mood swings, as well as of the chaos that constantly lurked just below the surface, ready to explode at any moment.--Martin LaFlamme "Japan Times "

[Natsume Sōseki's] life and work are explored insightfully in John Nathan's outstanding and cohesive literary biography.--Eileen Battersby "Financial Times "

Anyone with an interest in Japanese literature will enjoy the book. Not only is it a nice introduction to his work, but it also provides fascinating insights into a life cut short. As such, Sōseki: Modern Japan's Greatest Novelist is a work to be recommended, an easy read about a great writer.--Tony's Reading List

A vibrant portrayal of the transformation of a modern Japan as witnessed through the story of one of that country's best writers.--International Examiner

This biography and literary study describes a difficult, demanding man, plagued by poor physical and mental health, yet one who was also a master stylist with an extraordinary gift.--Times Higher Education

A fine biographical work that also helpfully covers Sōseki's major works in quite good depth, Sōseki is a solid and interesting biography--M.A. Orthofer "Complete Review "

[An] illuminating biography. . . . Nathan's incisive portrait of Sōseki as a troubled yet widely celebrated literary game changer--his image adorned the 1,000 banknote in 1984--will likely drive new readers to his fiction.--Publishers Weekly

Comprehensive and discerning. . . . A revealing portrait of a writer who deserves a new audience.--Kirkus Reviews

Sōseki captures the soul of Japan's greatest modern writer in the best tradition of biography. Here the venerated figure comes fully alive with his infuriating failings and astounding intelligence, his maddening ambitions and biting self-deprecations. The book also offers a vibrant portrayal of Japan's rapidly transforming society--an extraordinary feast.--Minae Mizumura, author of Inheritance from Mother

It's been half a century since the appearance of the most recent English-language biography of Natsume Sōseki, one of the giants of twentieth-century world literature, so the arrival of John Nathan's fine new study is cause for celebration. Sōseki's life story often reads like one of his novels, and Nathan captures it in prose worthy of his subject.--Michael Bourdaghs, University of Chicago

Nathan offers a lucid view of the life and works of the writer many consider to be Japan's most important, and best, novelist. He deftly shows how Sōseki's life reflects the many social and intellectual changes that occurred over the tumultuous decades of his lifetime--decades of Japan's transformation into a modern nation.--Alan Tansman, University of California, Berkeley

About the Author

John Nathan is Koichi Takashima Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Mishima: A Biography (1974) and Sony: The Private Life (1999), among other titles. He is the translator of Sōseki's last novel, Light and Dark (Columbia, 2014), as well as works by Yukio Mishima and Kenzaburō Ōe. Nathan is also an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker.