愚者の夜
An Akutagawa Prize-winning work by So Aono. Centered on a man returning to Japan with his foreign wife, it depicts exhaustion with freedom, fractures in married life, and the unease of trying to return to a homeland and ordinary living. The work places the distortions of a subject shaped by life abroad and re-exposed to Japanese society within an autobiographical mode of narration and the atmosphere of its time.
Work Information
A man searching for a place to return to is drawn once again into ordinary life and Japan after reaching the end of freedom.
Gusha no Yoru is a novel in which the sense of freedom acquired abroad collides with the weight of building a life in Japan. Through his relationship with his foreign wife, the protagonist tries to see himself as outside Japan and outside ordinary life, but the reality after his return erodes that self-image. Marital crisis, sexual liberation, and both revulsion toward and longing for ordinary life mingle to expose the loneliness of a Japanese subject after the years of high growth.
Review Summaries
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In the prize discussion, the work was valued for consciously transforming its material into fiction. Rather than merely recording foreign experience and married life, it shapes them as movements within the protagonist's inner life.
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A later reading sees the story as one in which a man with a foreign wife is forced to accept Japan and ordinary life. While it casts a critical eye on the protagonist's indulgent image of freedom and loneliness, it also treats the work as a reflection of the self-consciousness of its era.
Book Information
- Publisher
- 文藝春秋
- Published
- 1979-08-01
- Pages
- 165 pages
- Language
- 日本語
- ISBN-13
- 9784163055008
- ISBN-10
- 4163055002
- Price
- 75 JPY
- Category
- 本/文学・評論
Amazon.co.jp: 愚者の夜 : 青野聡: 本
Reviews
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Rhinocerotidae
【芥川賞】犀川。犀は Rhinocerotidae、そこでリノ。ジニーはオランダ。パリをはじめ、世界をまたに。主題は国際的な文化論と女と男の関係だろうか。３度読まないと掴めそうにない。
Related Literary Awards
- Akutagawa Prize Edition 81 (1979) ・award