NOTA |
(★)(trans. by Wakako Hironaka & Ann Siller Kostant)(Titulo original : 華岡青洲の妻 [Hanaoka Seishuu no tsuma, 1966]/ Though set in eighteenth-century Japan, the issues treated in this gripping and enduring novel are just as relevant and affecting today./ It tells the story of the first doctor in the world to perform surgery for breast cancer under a general anesthetic. Interwoven with it are the lives of two strong-willed women : his mother, and the wife who supports him, helps him perform his experiments, and is sacrificed on the altar of his success./ Few novels have ever delved into the workings of a traditional, male-dominated Japanese household with the unsentimentality and honesty of ´The Doctor´s Wife´./ ◆Sawako Ariyoshi (1931-1984), owes her huge following in Japan to her sympathetic interest in crucial social problems largely neglected by other writers. Among her books translated into English are ´The River Ki (Ki no kawa)´ ; ´The Twilight Years (Kookotsu no hito)´ ; and ´Kabuki Dancer (Izumo no okuni)´.) |