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(★)(Translated by John Bester／ 妹尾河童［Senoo Kappa(1930-)］／ Titulo original : 少年H［Shoonen H］／ He might easily have been a perfectly ordinary schoolboy...／ If, say, he hadn´t happened to be born in Japan just when that country was embarking on the militaristic course that would lead to its ruin before he was out of his teens... If his family hadn´t been just out-of-the-ordinary enough to make him a nonconformist in an overwhelmingly conformist society... And if, above all, he hadn´t had a precociously inquiring mind that would never be fobbed off with an easy answer...／ But he was, and he had -and the final result is this personal account of his boyhood, a story so readable and so full of resonances subtly linking past and present that it became a runaway best-seller in Japan and other parts of Asia.／ The episodes he describes in fifty short chapters range from humorous scenes of domestic life to the pathetic suicide of an army deserter ; from an affectionate picture of country life to the horror of the fire bombs ; from the naive celebrations of early victories to the frank bitterness of a war widow ; from shock and relief at the Emperor´s speech ending the war to the first encounters with the occupation forces ; from the author´s boyish exploits to the crisis of approaching adulthood that nearly ends his life.／ The final effect is of a mosaic. The pieces are multicolored, but they come together to form, not one, but two pictures -of the development under extraordinary conditions of a boy who isn´t especially virtuous or charitable and may at times be annoyingly overconfident, but who is basically likable and sensitive ; and of a particular nation rushing half-blind into a great conflict that could only end in tragedy. A rich, immediately accessible, eminently enjoyable double portrait that sheds new light on a turbulent period in history,´A Boy Called H´ surely deserves a similar success in the West as well.／ ◆On leaving school, Kappa Senoh worked as a graphic designer before making his largely self-taught debut as a stage designer in 1954. Since then his work for the theater, as well as for operas and musicals, has made him one of Japan´s leading artists in the field and won him many awards. He is also known as a best-selling essayist and illustrator, especially for his ´Kappa Takes a Look at...´ travel book series on various parts of the world, with their uniquely detailed drawings. ´A Boy Called H´ is his first venture into full-length book form.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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