Seventeen and J: Two Novels

Rating:
Summary: Two Novels: J and Seventeen.
Review: Oe Kenzaburop is a genius. I gave a copy of this book to two people-once three or four years ago to my high school English teacher, and once again this year to a fellow college student at Binghamton University.

The first person liked Seventeen better. He thought the masturbation scene in Seventeen was masterful. I thought so too. The scene is supposedly the first masturbation scene in a Japanese novel, and it was enthrallingly detailed. Seventeen was a good depiction of a boy coming of age, and his confused entry into the world of Japanese politics. The second person to whom I gave the book, loved the part in which the protogonist of Seventeen kicks his sister in the face, breaking her glasses.

As the first person to whom I gave the book liked Seventeen better than J, the second person to whom I gave the book liked J better than Seventeen. I too liked J better. J was a more vivid depiction of Japan and its contemporary personage's. J is written in two parts. The first part of the book takes place in the country, it presents J as a person confused about sex and his own sexuality, and at some point he even comes across as homosexual. The second part shows him in the city. He no longer contents himself with the answers life grants him, he decides to go out into the world and chance finding the sexual answers he desires by taking action. He becomes a "chikan," a sexual predator, who rides trains looking for his next victim (he exposes his naked parts to innocent train passengers, usually young school girls heading to school or returning home). Riding the trains he meets two persons with whom he will develop a great bond. This novel introduces some of the most memorable characters in fiction. In the world of Japanese literature Oe Kenzaburo ranks with Saikaku Ihara, Yasunari Kawabata, and Mishima Yukio.

J is about sex, it is about the pain of being a sadist-the suffering a sadist has to go through because he is miss understood. Reading this book, and seeing the unfairness in it, is enough to make a person question the way we view people, and society for that matter.

This book is essential for anyone who's interested in sex, or is just a straight out pervert. The first person to whom I gave the book was an erudite, whom I felt needed to read the book to be further learnt in literature. The second person was one who wanted me to suggest some books for him to read, for he wanted to be well-read. I felt this book was essential for such a goal.

Rating:
Summary: The Solemn Tightrope Walkers
Review: This is quintessential Oe.

If we fail to see ourselves reflected in society often we become outcasts or are labeled as deviant. The images of Seventeen and J are not reflexive. Therefore, by acts of violence and sexual molestation, they superimpose their images on a world which refuses to see.

With Seventeen and J, Oe depicts the transmution of post-war Japan. This is cleverly evidenced by J's truncated name and the attitude of Seventeen's father. While the political aspect of Japan is more apparent in Seventeen, the politics in J are presented in a more abstract level.

They have each architected an inner world populated with the shadows of despair, doubt, and disgust. Oe lets us become voyeurs of the private and sometimes painful world of these two young men who are self-described "others".

Seventeen and J are both "Solemn Tightrope Walkers". Yet, what they are trying to balance is their existence in a world which they despise with a raison detre. This is demonstrated by Seventeen's fanatical involvement with a right-wing political group and J's flirtation with being a "chaikan".

These two novels should be read by anyone who gives a damn or have stopped.

Rating:
Summary: The Solemn Tightrope Walkers
Review: This is quintessential Oe.

If we fail to see ourselves reflected in society often we become outcasts or are labeled as deviant. The images of Seventeen and J are not reflexive. Therefore, by acts of violence and sexual molestation, they superimpose their images on a world which refuses to see.

With Seventeen and J, Oe depicts the transmution of post-war Japan. This is cleverly evidenced by J's truncated name and the attitude of Seventeen's father. While the political aspect of Japan is more apparent in Seventeen, the politics in J are presented in a more abstract level.

They have each architected an inner world populated with the shadows of despair, doubt, and disgust. Oe lets us become voyeurs of the private and sometimes painful world of these two young men who are self-described "others".

Seventeen and J are both "Solemn Tightrope Walkers". Yet, what they are trying to balance is their existence in a world which they despise with a raison detre. This is demonstrated by Seventeen's fanatical involvement with a right-wing political group and J's flirtation with being a "chaikan".

These two novels should be read by anyone who gives a damn or have stopped.

Rating:
Summary: Politics and Sex
Review: _Seventeen & J_ was one of the many books resting and collecting dust that I bought on a whim and reall had little intention of reading soon. I have read two other Oe novels before these two short novels, _Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids_ and _A Personal Matter_ and his reknowned short story "The Catch," but while I did enjoy these works I was caught up in the recent literature of two of my favorite writers: Murakami Haruki and Yoshimoto Banana, and withing their numerous pages concerning sheepmen and girls who love to sleep in the kitchen, I was kind of bored when I entered Oe's more mundane world.

However, after a couple of years and haing read many of the works of Natsume Soseki, Tanizaki Junichiro, Mishima Yukio, and Kawabata Yasunari, I decided to try another Oe novel. After all the man did win the Nobel Prize for literature, and that must mean something, hehe.

I am glad that I did read these short novels, because they give the reader a view of the tumultuous early 60s in Japan.

_Seventeen_ stars a a young high school student who has just turned seventeen years old. While he is in the bathroom, he feels on top of the world and that with a little effort he will be able to accomplish anything. However, after he leaves the restroom, his high hopes fall back to earth and he gets into a poltical argument with his sister. He supporting the left, communists, and she supporting the right, basically nationalists. The sister wins the argument and succeeds in reducing her brother to tears. However, he pays her back with a swift kick to the eye. One can almost tell that "Seventeen" wants someone to say something to him, but the onl thing that happens is that his father says his sister won't help pay his college tuition.

The next day is even worse. The boy fails several important tests, but worse of all he wets himself while running 800 meters. Later a friend takes Seventeen to a rightest political rally, which the young high schooler becomes entranced by. He soon joins the rightest group, and even though he spouts all of the correct rightest slogans, one can tell he is only doing so because he feels that he finally belongs to a group of people.

The hero of _J_ is quite different than Seventeen. He is the 29 year old son of the president of a steel company and has money coming out of the yin yang. He also has a group of artists, a poet, an actor, a jazz singer, a camera man, a sculpter, his younger sister, a poet, and a film maker, his wife, at his beck and call. The novel starts out with J and his friend getting drunk in his jaguar as they head to his father's country houe to film a movie directed by his wife. They enjoy their time there, well mot of them at least, drinking, having sex, and telling dirty stories. However, things go wrong when they catch a little boy inside the cabin who escapes by crashing through a window. Everything works out fine in the end, but not before some very harsh words are spoken among the friends. Their close personal web of friendship, thought to be quite strong, was, in fact, quite weak.

The second part of the _J_ novel, finds J teamed up with a 60 year old man. They are both chikans, men who find sexual arousal through rubbing themselves on young girls on crowded trains, buses, subways, etc. However, they are quite cautious when they do it, that is why they are quite moved by a young man who performs chikan almost completely out in the open to gain experience so he can write a grand poem about sexual perversity.

Both novels are quite good. _Seventeen_ seems a bit stunted, but that is because the second half was not translated. The second part has never even been reprinted in Japanese because its original publication brought Oe much criticism from the left and the right. So, in all honesty, to protect his life, the story was never reprinted or translated.

A great book that gives to reader a raw view of the extremist in Japan during the early years of the sixties.