Description
Kurodahan Press Otogizoshi by Osamu Dazai Translated by Ralph F. McCarthy Introduction by Joel Cohn
Dazai Osamu wrote The Fairy Tale Book (Otogizoshi) in the last months of the Pacific War. The traditional tales upon which Dazais retellings are based are well known to every Japanese schoolchild but this is no childrens book. In Dazais hands such stock characters as the kindhearted Ojisan to Obasan (Grandmother and Grandfather) the mischievous tanuki badger the fearsome Oni ogres the greedy old man the tonguecut sparrow and of course Urashima Taro (the Japanese Rip van Winkle) become complex individuals facing difficult and nuanced moral dilemmas. The resulting stories are thoughtprovoking slyly subversive and often hilarious.In spite of the gloom and doom atmosphere always cited in reviews of The Setting Sun and the later No Longer Human though Dazais cutting wit and rich humor are evident in the entire body of his work. His literature depicts the human condition in painfully blunt and realistic terms but like life itself is often accompanied by a smile.show more