Death by Water (novel)

Death by Water (Japanese: 水死, Hepburn: Suishi, "Drowning") is a 2009 novel by Kenzaburō Ōe. It was published in hardcover by Kodansha on 15 December 2009.^[1] It was published in paperback in 2012.^[3] An English translation by Deborah Boliver Boehm was published in 2015.^[2] The novel is the fifth in a series with the main character of Kogito Choko, who can be considered Ōe's literary alter ego.

The novel was longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker International Prize.^[4]

Plot

The novel takes place partially in Tokyo but is primarily set in the forests of Shikoku and Kogito Choko's family home located in his hometown village in Shikoku. As a child in World War II, Kogito watched his father drown in a river during World War II. He returns to Shikoku in search of a red leather case which he believes contains documents that will answer the mysteries behind his father's life and death. He plans to use these documents to form the base of his new novel, which will be his final work.^[5][6]

Publication

The novel was published in hardcover by

Kirkus Reviews called the novel "vintage Oe: provocative, doubtful without being cynical, elegant without being precious."^[7]

Publishers Weekly wrote, "Oe's deceptively tranquil idiom scans the violent history of postwar Japan and its present-day manifestations, in the end finding redemption."^[8]

Writing for The New York Times Book Review, Janice P. Nimura gave the novel a favourable review, writing, "True Oe devotees may find this thrill in "Death by Water," but thrilling or not, it remains a thoughtful reprise of a lifetime of literary endeavor."^[9]

Colin Dwyer of NPR lamented the novel's "tendency to repeat itself, action that amounts to little more than a play's stage direction and a translation that can get a bit stilted" but concluded that it is "worth the extra effort."^[10]

References