A review by lijon
Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan by Donald Keene

4.0

This is the autobiography of Donald Keene, a famous scholar of Japanese literature. I found the first 2/3 of the book very interesting, especially the stories of how Keene ended up studying Japanese language and literature. I found the last third of the book kind of boring, though--there is a lot of discussion of whose books he translated and who he visited with. It seemed at the end as if he felt he had to mention everyone who might be still living, or whose families would want to be mentioned (if they were dead). I would recommend the first part of the book to anyone, but the end only to those who are really interested in writers unlikely to be known outside of Japan.