Synopses & Reviews
A Quiet Life is an uncanny blend of the real with the imagined, of memoir with fiction. A Quiet Life is narrated by Ma-chan, a twenty-year-old woman. Her father is a famous and fascinating novelist; her older brother, though severely brain damaged, possesses an almost magical gift for musical composition; and her mother's life is devoted to the care of them both. Ma-chan and her younger brother find themselves emotionally on the outside of this oddly constructed nuclear family. But when her father accepts a visiting professorship from an American university, Ma-chan finds herself suddenly the head of the household and at the center of family relationships that she must begin to redefine.
Review
"A welcome building-block in the ungainly structure that is Oe's utterly distinctive and compelling oeuvre." Kirkus Reviews
Review
“A Quiet Life, opened new pathways in Oe’s fiction. By absenting himself from his own world, he allows the center of gravity to shift. Ma-chan is fascinating — curious, thoughtful and tender." Japan Times
About the Author
Kenzaburo Oe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today." He is the author of numerous books, including The Changeling; Rouse Up, O Young Men of the New Age; Hiroshima Notes; A Personal Matter; and Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness, among others.