Reviews

Una cuestión personal by Roberto Fernandez Sastre, Yoonah Kim, Kenzaburō Ōe

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lvl_1_coffee's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

sidharthvardhan's review against another edition

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5.0

The put-off of the book is the awful amount of sex in it - some of it might have justification in that it was the way Bird overcome his misery to some extent but that does do justice to excessive description. It is also a hat-trick of sorts - it is third book I have reviewed which has as its protoginist, a married professor who happens to be having an affair with a student. In one of books, the girl committed suicide, in other she suffered an career set-back and in here she is consoling the man who raped her. Twice the author was Nobel prize winner and once a woman. I have nothing against authors it is just that I'm getting a little afraid for my potentional daughter's academic career.

Except for that novel is beautiful. Kenzaburō Ōe himself had a child suffering physical and mental disabilities. And so the book is based on true experience. Even the fact of pregnancy of his wife had meant an end to Bird's intellectual ambitions. The birth of a child suffering from brain hernia made it worst time of his life to put it lightly. And he actually made it worse by getting fired.

The novel is about about his coming to peace with his situation. He is tempted to kill the child or simply let him die. It is easy to judge him for his clumsy and morally weak behaviour - as it has always been easier to judge someone suffering from something we never suffered from. But it must be really hard - you are living your life normally till one day you suddenly face a choice between misery for rest of your life and an easy escape. The fact that his wife probably never doubted her choice is probably because mothers are more invested their children.

There is the fact that everything else - world politics, office business etc seem absurd when he is faced with such a deeply personal tragedy and hence the title.

Another thing is the ridiculous indifference (or was it professional clumsiness?) shown by doctors. People say that doctors have to deal with such cases everyday and so they develop an indifference - but shouldn't that mean they should know how to make people in situation like Bird's to feel easy?

Anyways Bird made the right choice in the end. And the last chapter shows he was happier and a better person for it. Ōe and his wife too were happy for choosing not to let the child die (despite doctor's suggestion to contrary) - their son is a popular music composer.

weejman33's review against another edition

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5.0

One of the best in recent memory, and an underappreciated classic. Unforgiving and direct, an unrelenting viscerality dominates this novel. A story about losing control that follows a deeply flawed character whose self-pity and moral shortfalls force us to confront our own malevolent subconscious desires. The novel blends the ubiquitous literary themes of love and loss with those of the dangers of instinctual choices and fear of unfulfilled dreams. Realistic dialogue, moving metaphors; the book just had everything I wanted it to have.