The Silent Cry by Kenzaburo Oe (Kodansha)

Kenzaburo Oe is Japan’s second recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first being Yasunari Kawabata. Oe was awarded the honor in 1994. The Nobel Prize in Literature committee called The Silent Cry “Oe’s major mature work,” praising it for dealing “with people’s relationships...in a confusing world.” 

The story is set in the sixties and centers around the Nedokoro brothers, Mitsusaburo and Takashi. They had left their hometown, a small rural village on the island of Shikoku. Mitsusaburo moved to Tokyo where he taught English at a university and also worked as a translator. Takashi had set out for the United States after the suppression of the student protests in his home country.

Mitsusaburo is twenty-seven years old. In the opening chapter, he wakes up in the predawn and seems to walk in a daze. He spots a square hole in the ground which was dug to set up a septic tank for the house. Mitsusaburo climbs down the hole and sits in the hole and ponders life. He thinks about his friend who committed suicide at the end of summer “who daubed his head all over with crimson paint, stripped, thrust a cucumber up his anus, and hanged himself.”

Mitsusaburo and his wife also have a child. Unfortunately, their son was born with a congenital birth defect and the doctors have told them that the chance of their son leading a normal life is unlikely and they have recently committed him to an institution. This leads Mitsusaburo’s wife to drink, affecting their relationship. 

The following day, Mistsusaboro hears from his brother’s friends that Takashi would be coming back to Japan. Takashi meets Mitsusaburo and suggests that he and his wife should join him and move back to their hometown in Shikoku and start a new life. Around the same time, an owner of a supermarket chain has made an offer to the Nedokoro’s for their kura, a traditional “store house” that is still in their possession in their hometown. Mitsusaburo lets his younger brother Takashi take care of all the details, not giving much thought to its sale or about starting a new life again.

As the story progresses, we discover that Takashi has an ulterior motive. Takashi not only sells the kura but the land as well. Mitsusaburo realizes he’s been duped into coming back to Shikoku for Takashi’s nefarious purpose. It appears that Takashi idolizes their grandfather’s younger brother who was a leader of a rebellion against the “establishment”. Now, Takashi wants to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather’s younger brother and to start a rebellion of his own. 

When the Nedokoro brothers were younger there was a small community of Koreans who were brought there to work as forced laborers during World War II. The owner of the large supermarket in town is Korean by origin. After the opening of the supermarket, many of the local shops were forced to sell or close as they were no longer making any profits. Takashi has recruited a lot of young people from the town and has been teaching them how to play football which is only a ploy to teach his recruits to use violence to help him in his rebellion.

A complex story about family ties and relationships - love, marriage, children, adultery, incest, violence, and suicide. The intricate web of the Nedokoro brothers' volatile relationship and their family history can be painful at times and draws a dark web that will haunt you long after you have finished reading the book. ~Ernie Hoyt