What do You think about Rouse Up, O Young Men Of The New Age! (2003)?
This is what the French call a tour de force. I believe that's French for a tour of 'force', a Jedi ability that taps into pure potential and imagination (who knew the French were such nerds).The "novel", if you can call it that, is a breathtaking study of the lives of two people who are completely intertwined, the author and his son. The honesty drips off of every page and makes this a stunning chronicle of a man's life with a mentally disabled child. The way he relates William Blake's poems and prophecies to his own life and struggles shows how universal these problems are, and too how universal is the healing that follows. By turns funny, heartbreaking, joyous, and insightful, the book manages to be more than the sum of its parts and is an interesting analysis of how Oe has lived his life since his son's birth. Highly recommended for fans of philosophical fiction.
—Corey
I picked this book up on a whim after reading about it on one of my favorite book blogs and being drawn to its poetic title (from a work by William Blake). This was my introduction to Nobel Prize winner, Kenzaburo Oe. I’m not going to be able to do justice to this book, but still wanted to capture my thoughts on it. The book is about a father, a writer, who tries to write up a dictionary of all that his mentally-handicapped son needs to know about life. All throughout, he meditates on the ways in which his interpretations of William Blake’s works illuminate his understandings of the father-son relationship, death, his own childhood, human communication and connection. It feels like an intensely personal memoir (and indeed there are elements, we’re told by Oe’s translator, that are taken from Oe’s life), diary, and literary analysis all at the same time. I wasn’t so much interested in the parts on Blake’s poetry and indeed, most of it went over my head. Yet, what kept me turning the pages was the father’s recounting the experience of parenting a handicapped child, the difficulties, the fears, but also the joys—never in a trite, overly maudlin way. Apparently this theme is one that runs through many of Oe’s other works, and thanks to this book, I’m eager to explore this father-son relationship further. It’s a quiet book, often esoteric and boring in parts, but deeply moving.
—Sam
The day the governor toured among his constituents and the police chief had lashed my father with his tongue and driven him to make a spectacle of his labor, what if, in the instant, the emperor's proclamation of the war's end had blared from a radio across the entire valley? Then my intrepid father in his cotton smock would have raised his hatchet high in his right hand and ordered the police chief and the governor to take their places at the crank handles and to begin the crunching and clanking. And three or so places back in the line, His Majesty the Emperor would have been removing his white gloves as he waited his turn to go to work...It can be considered Oe's memoir regarding the relationship between him and his retarded son. The book covers a vast intellectual territory that is impractical to summarize. Yet, he never loses control or becomes tangled in his own ideas. If you're down for the trip, it's going to be a hell of a ride.
—Ismael Galvan
