Various (Birnbaum, Alfred (editor); Hashimoto, Osamu; Hisauchi, Michio; Kobayashi, Kyoji; Makino, Eri; Murakami, Haruki; Shimada, Masahiko; Shimizu, Yoshinori; Takahashi, Gen’ichiro; Takeno, Masato; Yamada, Amy)

Monkey Brain Sushi: New Tastes in Japanese Fiction

ISBN: 9784770015433
New York, NY, USA: Kodansha International, 1991. First Edition. Hardcover. “In certain areas of my life, I actively seek out solitude. Especially for someone in my line of work, solitude is, more or less, an inevitable circumstance. Sometimes, however, this sense of isolation, like acid spilling out of a bottle, can unconsciously eat away at a person's heart and dissolve it. You could see it, too, as a kind of double-edged sword. It protects me, but at the same time steadily cuts away at me from the inside.”--Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Alfred Birnbaum (b. 1955) is an American translator who, over the years, has translated the works of Haruki Murakami (b. 1949) one of the most beloved contemporary fiction writers of the past century, Miyabe Miyuki (b. 1960), and Natsuki Ikezawa (b. 1945). Birnbaum is a professor of creative writing and translation at Waseda University’s School of International Liberal Studies in Tokyo, Japan. “Monkey Brain Sushi”, the volume offered here today, is an anthology of new (at the time of publication, 1991) and exciting writers experimenting and reshaping the landscape of Japanese literary fiction. Early short stories by now legendary writers such as Haruki Murakami, Masahiko Shimada (b. 1961), Eri Makino (b. 1953), Yoshinori Shimizu (b. 1945) among many others litter the page, making “Monkey Brain Sushi” a truly exciting and phenomenal collection of experimental Japanese literature. Irreverent, surrealist-post-zen amalgamations of new literary and cultural territory, the works in “Monkey Brain Sushi” showcase a (at the time) rising sensibility that has come to define contemporary Japanese literature in subsequent decades. Hardcover in unclipped dust-jacket: First edition, as stated at copyright page, first printing, as indicated by number sequence thereon. Book is in very fine condition with minimal wear to fine edges; dust-jacket is in very fine condition with minor wear to fine edges, and light smudging to front and back covers. Otherwise substantially mint! Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #6355]

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