Otogizoshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

The purpose of this book is to analyze and interpret Japanese folktales more than retelling them by the author. I git this to read to my kids but it was not the right material.

I have no problem with the stories. In fact, I found this book to be a delightful read. (Delightful? I can't believe I keep using these words for Japanese fiction. Only they fit). I found the author's reworking of the characters to be both clever and insightful, especially when you consider that he is supposedly huddled up in a wartime bunker while composing these tales. But I do have a problem with the translation. I have not read the Japanese version, but I imagine the translator was simply trying to mimic a folksy style in the original. So far, so good. But he overdoes it, to the extent that it no longer reads like Japanese but like an only modestly talented British writer trying to imitate Japanese. Perhaps it's just me, but much of the dialogue in this book seems like it could be seamlessly incorporated into a work like, say, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Translators beware: Colloquialisms in one language do not necessarily come off well as colloquialisms in another. Still, this should not dissuade you the reader from picking up this book. It reads fast and is well worth your time.

Bought as a gift and she loved it

The book arrived in very good condition. Everything was as described in description.

I've heard some of these fairy tales before. It was interesting reading the narrator's circumstances and attitudes about his versions.

This book is well written and entertaining.

Long ago, when the Allies were bombing the crap out of the mystical land of Japan, its greatest coolest jazziest and most phantasmagorical writer, Dazai Osamu (neither a member of the Muslim Brotherhood nor born in Hawaii), soon to be gone with his lover from this world, was hunkered down in trenches and air raid shelters, reworking traditional fairy tales. Why would anyone do such a thing, you ask? Well, I answer (as if I actually knew), his world and all he knows and loves is coming to an end. Before his ancient cities topple burning into the sea, he'd like to know why. He'd like to pack a little truth to take with him on his long road to the next realm. The fundamental aspects of a culture can be listed in this order: games, cuisine, laws, history, and language. The highest achievement in language is the story. All stories through time become increasingly untrue. Foggy is the way we like it. A story's function as factual repository gradually gives way to a more important purpose: a way to extract meaning, a guide when we have strayed, and a reminder that life is mostly about getting kicked down the stairs. Fairy tales, by and large, East and West, address cruelty. In the West we are more likely to sweeten the original for the sake of the kiddies. I point you to Dreamworks, whose makeovers of swamp ogres, magic donkeys, gingerbread men, and such mythic staples as Rumplestiltskin, Humpty Dumpty, and Puss n Boots, have revolutionized the trade. Still, the hero arrives, the villain is punished, true love is inviolable, happiness reigns ever after (at least until the next sequel), i.e., there is not much to take. Dazai, one of the wittiest, most sublime and modest souls in letters, gives us something to chew on. His reworks are epicrisis. His revision and analysis dizzy with depth. This is a slim volume. There are only four tales, "The Stolen Wen," about a ne'er-do-well sake (rice wine) lover who meets a tribe of native mountain ogres, who are so pleased by his reckless boogie moves they remove his disfigurement thinking it is an asset and that he will therefore have to return to entertain them again. A vainer more sober citizen of the valley with a similar growth, seeing our carefree boozer freed of his ungainly excrescence, seeks the giants but frightens them with his well-meaning attempts at dance, then misunderstanding his request to have his wen removed the ogres attach the drunk's wen so that our sober gent returns home later that day wearing two. "Urashima-San" is a riotous freeform comico-philosophical interaction between a spoiled nobleman and the tortoise he once saved, culminating in a dazzling sea journey to a fantastic palace from which our nobleman returns humbled and amazed only to be turned into a three-hundred-year old man. "Click-Clack Mountain" is so cruel even Dreamworks couldn't adapt it, but it is a toothsome penetration into that state of helpless lust we so often mistake for love. The last story, "The Sparrow Who Lost her Tongue," is my favorite, about a true-speaking but "worthless" man of inaction named Oji-san who one day encounters a lovely and eloquent sparrow who challenges Oji-san's notions, after which Oji-san's jealous wife tears out the sparrow's tongue. I'm not going to wreck all of these stories by telling the end, but suffice it to say, this is meaty fare as lively, unpredictable, brainy, and fun to read as any other book I put at the very top. Few can touch Dazai's gift for description, his sea cherries and underwater fires and hills of pearls that our tour guide tortoise tells us are merely "oyster poop." His gentle observations about life come in waves: "People who live pretty sweet lives don't tend to be of much use to others." This translation by R. M. McCarthy is superior, deft, delightful to read. I'm sure that if he hasn't caught the spirit and letter of Dazai Osamu, he may have well have improved on it.

I am a Dazai fan and was very excited to get this book. The first, third, and fourth stories are just fine and deserve five stars. But the second story, Urashima-san, is so excruciatingly bad that I had to dock the grade TWO stars for it! Really agonizingly bad. I don't blame the translator. I think Dazai really thought the unbearable "banter" between Urashima-san and the tortoise would somehow entertain his public. The descriptions of the undersea palace are fine, it is only the interaction between these characters that is almost bad enough to ruin the book. Skip this second story, and I can almost guarantee that you will have a great experience!

Books not in English

good seller, the product received was as expected

The framing device of a Japanese father recounting these legends during the final days of WW2 explains the mostly absent bite of these tales; thrir focus lies on being amusing & uplifting. If you are well-versed in Japanese myth, you'll get a chuckle out of the stories and how they twist myths. The narrator's digressions showcase Dazai's brilliant wit, but the stories themselves are pretty tame and not that captivating. The translation, for those interested, is actually excellent; it's just not the author's finest work. Mainly recommended for Japanese mythology buffs and Dazai completionists.

It was a new and fresh perspective towards the popular Japanese fairytales: a humane approach steeped in flaws but resonates to oneself. Didn’t regret it.

Edición cuidada, con letra clara y grande, que hace que sea muy agradable leerlo. Agradezco que haya editoriales, no importa en qué país, que sigan publicando textos de las distintas tradiciones literarias del mundo. Éste libro es un ejemplo.