About the Book

Oe's most important novel, A Personal Matter, has been called by The New York Times "close to a perfect novel." In A Personal Matter, Oe has chosen a difficult, complex though universal subject: how does one face and react to the birth of an abnormal child? Bird, the protagonist, is a young man of 27 with antisocial tendencies who more than once in his life, when confronted with a critical problem, has "cast himself adrift on a sea of whisky like a besotted Robinson Crusoe." But he has never faced a crisis as personal or grave as the prospect of life imprisonment in the cage of his newborn infant-monster. Should he keep it? Dare he kill it? Before he makes his final decision, Bird's entire past seems to rise up before him, revealing itself to be a nightmare of self-deceit. The relentless honesty with which Oe portrays his hero -- or antihero -- makes Bird one of the most unforgettable characters in recent fiction.

Product Details

Media: Paperback Book, 214 pages

Language: English

Publisher: Grove Press (Jan. 31st, 1994)

ISBN-10: 0802150616

ISBN-13: 9780802150615

Dimensions: 5.38 x 8.12 x 0.46 inches

Shipping Weight: 0.44 lbs

• Categories: General Fiction and Literature General Asian Literary Criticism