Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness: Four Short Novels

THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE TITULAR NOVELLA, EXCLUSIVE OF SUNDRY FELLOWTRAVELLERS COLLECTED HEREIN

This book gutted me, and when I tell you now before you read it that it is obviously informed by (I will not say based on) Kenzaburo Ōe's relationship with his autistic son Hikari ("light"), I suspect it will gut you too. It's a father–son story set against Ōe's frequent narrative safety net of distant fathers grappling with their demons, caring-malevolent mothers doing cruel things to protect the ecological health of the family unit, sons trying to bring out the howls of anguish within them, irrelevant wives, etc. Here, that is the background (roughly speaking, though it busts out at the end per below), and rotundly in the foreground is a show more fat man (never just "the man," always "the fat man") who wants so much to communicate with his developmentally disabled (and also fat) son that he convinces himself he can feel his thoughts/fears/pain and communicate with him through the skin-to-skin bond formed their big and little, damp and sticky hands. This is a story about their adventures on the subway and at the noodle shop and with the optometrist and in the polar bear enclosure, and if you have ever wept with longing to have a little one to love or sat gobsmacked by your perfect child (I have done both), what happens to break their bond in the end will act as a sobering tonic to all those overwrought feelings and remind you that no new life is a a blank slate, there's never just two people in the room, that no matter how much we might be tempted to disappear into a brave new dyadic world where none of "that other stuff" counts and LOVE OUR KID RIGHT, every parent is always (already) also a child, sibling, lover, friend and foe ... ad nauseam! show less

As most books sit on my list until I can go into them with no expectations, I was prepared just to read some new stories. However, the introduction first drops a 'charming' story about the author walking up to a colleague's wife and calling her a c***, excerpts some of the most racial moments of the book, and then explains the very first piece is so private and difficult to follow that most people never finish it. Way to whet my appetite! I debated not bothering and then settled on starting at the second story. Here at the end I can say that was good preparation, because these are intense, inward, ugly stories. There's a realism that I appreciate, but I'm not running out to buy more of his work.

this is the most lovable book. it's harsh, obsessive, and specific, beautifully written.

Wow! This was an exceedingly challenging read, especially The Day He Himself Shall Wipe Away My Tears. I enjoyed all 4 novellas and that they shared some thematic similarities. Particularly, strained and damaged relationships between sons and fathers, and the process of spinning towards insanity. Prize Stock was my favorite and the most accessible. I'm not sure this collection would appeal to "most" people but it you've read other Oe works, can make your way through Faulkner or similar, then this might be for you.

I've not yet read the 1st novella in this book. I may revisit it later. The 4/5 star rating is for the rest of this collection:

"Prize Stock": my favorite; a strange and powerful tale that really resonated with me. 5/5

"Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness": strange is just the beginning here. But there is tenderness here too. The ending wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped, but the writing is solid. 3.5/5

"Aghwee the Sky Monster": really good story. 3.5/5

”Dites-nous comment survivre à notre folie” de Kenzaburo Oe (Prix Nobel de Littérature 1994) regroupe quatre nouvelles d’inspiration autobiographique. Difficile enfance dans le Japon en guerre, relations complexes avec père, mère et fils, coexistence et entremêlement du mythe, du rêve, de la folie et du souvenir. Des textes denses et exigeants qui plongent le lecteur dans un univers sans concession, à la violence latente et toujours au bord de l’aliénation.

Pour l'instant je n'ai lu que la nouvelle éponyme... Très bonne... Sur un père abandonné qui s'occupe de son fils handicapé mental.