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lindzlovesreading 's review for:
Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories
by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
These collections of stories may have broken me.
I realise the way the collection was edited and structured it's going for that kind of impact, and yes it hook line and sinker. Short story collection by their very nature are hit and miss, the way the author writes something, how the reader reacts to the piece. As Murakami writes in his introduction, this collection is a best of for Akuagawa. And, yeah, Akutagawa is good, really good, really really good.
Classic Akutagawa, has this modern sensibility with the traditional stories of Japan. But it's more than that, there is an undercurrent of bitterness, sadness, frustration, cynisim and the pure joy of writing. So when you get to the later more autobiographical, something like Spinning Gears feels more raw than it would if I hadn't read Rashamon or Hell Screen. But Life of a Stupid Man and Spinning Gears might be one of the best discriptions of depression and anxiety I have read. Just the fear, frustration, the constant flow of ideas, arrogance and the apathy all rolled into one.
But then there are the stories such as in the Bamboo Grove, Hell Screen, Green Onions or even Horse Legs which are all sad, tragic but wonderful, then you get these little strange stories in between, which still give texture and rise and fall to the collection. But throughout the stories, Akutagawa wears himself on the writing's sleave. And that is the cherry of the sundae, I felt like I got to know a version of Akutagawa that felt a little more honest than other authors.
I realise the way the collection was edited and structured it's going for that kind of impact, and yes it hook line and sinker. Short story collection by their very nature are hit and miss, the way the author writes something, how the reader reacts to the piece. As Murakami writes in his introduction, this collection is a best of for Akuagawa. And, yeah, Akutagawa is good, really good, really really good.
Classic Akutagawa, has this modern sensibility with the traditional stories of Japan. But it's more than that, there is an undercurrent of bitterness, sadness, frustration, cynisim and the pure joy of writing. So when you get to the later more autobiographical, something like Spinning Gears feels more raw than it would if I hadn't read Rashamon or Hell Screen. But Life of a Stupid Man and Spinning Gears might be one of the best discriptions of depression and anxiety I have read. Just the fear, frustration, the constant flow of ideas, arrogance and the apathy all rolled into one.
But then there are the stories such as in the Bamboo Grove, Hell Screen, Green Onions or even Horse Legs which are all sad, tragic but wonderful, then you get these little strange stories in between, which still give texture and rise and fall to the collection. But throughout the stories, Akutagawa wears himself on the writing's sleave. And that is the cherry of the sundae, I felt like I got to know a version of Akutagawa that felt a little more honest than other authors.