Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age! (Paperback)

Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age is a virtuoso novel hailed as "a dark jewel" (The Village Voice) and "a dazzlingly unconventional fiction ... capable of frequently reducing the reader to helpless (albeit grateful) tears" (Kirkus Reviews). Wise and illuminating, it is a masterpiece from one of the world's finest writers, Kenzaburo Oe -- winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. K is a famous writer living in Tokyo with his wife and three children, one of whom is mentally disabled. K's wife confronts him with the information that this child, Eeyore, has been doing disturbing things -- behaving aggressively, asserting that he's dead, even brandishing a knife at his mother -- and K, given to retreating from reality into abstraction, looks for answers in his lifelong love of William Blake's poetry. As K struggles to understand his family and assess his responsibilities within it, he must also reevaluate himself -- his relationship with his own father, the political stances he has taken, the duty of artists and writers in society. A remarkable portrait of the inexpressible bond between this father and his damaged son, Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age is the work of an unparalleled writer at his sparkling best. "An intimate investigation of love, responsibility, and the nature of inspiration, from one of world literature's most original voices." -- Fionn Meade, The Seattle Times "Notable for its] piercing emotional honesty ... A hopeful book." -- John Freeman, The Dallas Morning News "Oe's voice resounds in every sentence, making for rewarding-if melancholy-reading." -- Andrew Ervin, The Philadelphia Inquirer