By Haruki Murakami The following is from the introduction to The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories. From Seppuku to Meltdown I once heard the story that when jazz drummer Buddy Rich was being admitted to a hospital, the nurse at the front desk asked him if he had any allergies. “On...
Much of Shiga’s fiction is concerned with difficult family relationships, and his concern with the psychological involvements of his first-person heroes places some of his stories in the category ofshishōsetsu(“I,” or autobiographical, fiction). Both the storyWakai(1917; “Reconciliation”) and...
Beyond the Curve, a translation into English of short stories drawn from various periods of his career, was published in 1991. Abe formed the Abe Kōbō Studio, a theatrical company, in 1973. He regularly wrote one or two plays a year for the company and served as its director. The best...