Rouse Up, O Young Men of the New Age

by KenzaburoOe (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $3.22

  This is a virtuoso novel of extraordinary power that returns to the themes that haunt so much of Oe's work: family, responsibility, writing and the experience of being a parent to a disabled child.K is a famous writer living in Tokyo with his wife and three children, one of whom has been, since birth, mentally disabled.A highly cerebral man who often retreats from everyday life into his own world of abstraction - usually the poetry of William Blake - K is confronted by his wife with the reality that his child, Eeyore, has been doing disturbing things: behaving aggressively, asserting he's dead, even brandishing a knife at his mother. K's struggle to understand his family and his place within it, leads him to a startling re-evaluation of himself, his attitudes and his responsibilities. Bittersweet, inspiring and sometimes hilarious, Rouse Up is the work of an unparalleled writer at his dazzling best.

• New

  Paperback
  2003

  $14.79

  Wise and illuminating, Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age! is a masterpiece from one of the world's finest writers, Kenzaburo Oe -- winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. K is a famous writer living in Tokyo with his wife and three children, one of whom is mentally disabled. K's wife confronts him with the information that this child, Eeyore, has been doing disturbing things -- behaving aggressively, asserting that he's dead, even brandishing a knife at his mother -- and K, given to retreating from reality into abstraction, looks for answers in his lifelong love of William Blake's poetry. As K struggles to understand his family and assess his responsibilities within it, he must also reevaluate himself -- his relationship with his own father, the political stances he has taken, the duty of artists and writers in society. A remarkable portrait of the inexpressible bond between this father and his damaged son, Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age! is the work of an unparalleled writer at his sparkling best.