The Silent Cry - Kenzaburō Ōe

As I mentioned in my last post, the last book I managed to read in May was A Personal Matter by Kenzaburō Ōe. I was not quite finished reading his novel, The Silent Cry ; it wouldn't be going onto May's list but would be the first book read in June.

The novel tells the story of two brothers in the early 1960s who travel to their ancestral village in order to rearrange their lives and sell part of their remaining property to the owner of a large supermarket chain.

Although not a sequel, by any means, the novel shares elements with Ōe's earlier work; as in A Personal Matter , the protagonist is the father of a mentally disabled child. In both novels, there are suicides, alcoholism, sexual infidelity and dreams of Africa. I didn't, however, find The Silent Cry as "disturbing and shocking" as the earlier novel.

Kenzaburō Ōe is not an easy read - I would classify him as a modern day Japanese Dostoevsky.

Ōe has often sighted Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as one of his favorite novels. On that recommendation, I've begun reading the Twain novel.