Sōseki Natsume

The Miner is the most daringly experimental and least well-known novel of the great Meiji writer Natsume Soseki. An absurdist tale about the indeterminate nature of human personality, written in 1908, it was in many ways a precursor to the work of Joyce and Beckett. The result is a novel that is both absurd and comical, and a true modernist classic.

It was during the Meiji era, which lasted from 1868 to 1912, that Japan emerged as a modern nation; and it was towards the latter part of this period that the modern Japanese novel reached its maturity, and true masters of what was essentially a western literary form began to appear. Of these novelists, Natsume Soseki was perhaps the most profound and the most versatile.

Thieves, gamblers, prostitutes, confidence men: these and other such types mingled with priests, merchants, and ordinary citizens along the great trunk road between Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto in early 19th century Japan. This colorful cast of thousands eddies and swirls around ne'er-do-well narrator Katsu Kochiki (1802-1850). Written after he had retired and adopted the name "Musui" (dream-besotted), Katsu's memoirs provide a rich and often amusing account...

"A nameless stray cat, offered a home with a mediocre schoolteacher, compares notes with his fellow felines on his experiences with humans."--