Death by Water is a novel by Japanese author Kenzaburo Oe, written in 2009. This is the last of the writer’s novels, after which Oe ended his career. Similar to other works of Kenzaburo, the story is told from the point of view of the semi-autobiographical character, the writer Kogito, who tries to analyze the actions of his father.
The starting point of the novel is the death of Cogito’s father, who was an ultra-nationalist. The cause of death was a flood, during which Cogito’s father tried to raise the morale of the character’s comrades. The action took place shortly before the surrender of Japan in 1945. Moreover, as Kogito recalled, the hero’s father died for other reasons, however, it was the image of death from Water that remained in his memories. After returning to Kogito’s native village, the main character, together with the young actress Unaiko, is working on a play to analyze the past period.
The development of Japanese literature was significantly influenced by the historical past of the country, namely the post-war trace. Thus, a lot of the works were based on deep thoughts about life and memories through the prism of any events (Stahl, 2019). In this novel, Kogito analyzes one’s past based on ghostly memories from childhood and fictitious data about the father. Besides, the author was able to achieve a deeper purpose: namely, employing these reflections, and analyzing Japanese thinking and its various aspects.
To conclude, it is worth noting that, unlike recent Kenzaburo novels, this one is distinguished by the simplicity of the language, one may notice the absence of complex stylistic elements. The reason for this may be the desire of the author to make the novel as clear as possible for the audience but at the same time convey deep thoughts.
Reference
Stahl, D. C. (2019). Social trauma, narrative memory, and recovery in Japanese literature and film. Routledge.