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TWO NOVELS: SEVENTEEN & J
KENZABURO OE
Introduction by Masao Miyoshi
New York: Blue Moon Books, 1996
194 pages. $16.95
The first of two stories in this book begins on the 17th birthday of the main character, an insecure adolescent obsessed by masturbation and erotic fantasies who finds an outlet for his selfloathing and depression by joining a rightwing group called the Imperial Way Party. The story was published in January 1961, two months after a 17-year-old terrorist stabbed to death the chairman of the Japan Socialist Party in front of television cameras. The riots and demonstrations that erupted during the negotiations prior to renewal of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty in 1960 also form a backdrop for the story. Oe succeeded in creating a story that pulsates with the violence and political passions that rocked the era.
Oe...