B1179-JAS154
Book Review Of The Wild Geese (Tuttle Classics), by Ogai Mori
Copyright © by
Jessica Schneider, 10/21/11
In Japanese literature, two names are often lumped together: Soseki
Natsume and Ogai Mori. Both are noted for having written during the fall of the
Meiji Era—or what marked the decline of the classical image of Japan as it
struggled to accept the new Western influences. They are also two writers who
were hugely impacted by the suicide of General Nogi (which was carried out
following the death of Emperor Meiji). Soseki’s novel, Kokoro, contains
the influence of such, and many of his works have been translated into English.
Ogai, however, is not as easily available in translation.
The Wild Geese is the first Ogai novel I’ve read, and it is
interesting to notice how he has influenced many later writers, like Tanizaki
and Kawabata. The Wild Geese takes place during the fall of the Meiji
Era, and involves a young woman who puts her father’s happiness before her
own. Thus, to please him, Otama agrees to become a mistress for a usurer—a
position she regards with scorn. She ultimately regrets her decision, for not
only does she feel humiliated by it, the consequences bring on poverty as well
as personal degradation. Ogai describes the internal turmoil well:
“She knew she had degraded herself to the lowest limits, yet she had
still sought a kind of spiritual comfort in the unselfishness of her choice.”
Upon learning that her new husband is an usurer, Otama becomes
overwhelmed with turmoil, and yet when she wishes to inform her father of her
situation, she declines, for she does not want to spoil any of his happiness.
She views any sort of bad news as a kind of poison, and “she didn’t want to
pour a drop of poison into the sake cup he [her father] held in his hand.”
Interestingly, Otama finally begins to feel her independence for the
first time when she chooses to hold her sadness in, showing that even misery can
be a possession. It is, after all, her misery. Just as the narrator
notes: “Resignation was the mental attitude she had most experienced. And in
this direction her mind adjusted itself like a well-oiled machine.”
The reference to The Wild Geese in the title refers to her desire
for a life without restriction. Ironically, much of the restriction that befalls
her is not only due to the era in which she lives, but her own actions. By not
wanting to ruin her father’s happiness, she ultimately ends up destroying her
own.
The Wild Geese is told via a very spare style of storytelling, and
just like many of Kawabata’s novels, The Wild Geese ends on a metaphor.
The symbolism is never forced, but implied. One reviewer on Amazon commented
that this is a story about unfairness, and in many ways, this is true, albeit
that unfairness is brought on by a number of different circumstances, some of
which are brought on by the heroine herself via her lack of any real effort to
change it.
Throughout the tale, Ogai reveals Otama’s yearning in a myriad of ways.
For example, in one scene he describes the difference between the window shopper
who cannot afford whatever is in the window from that of a shoplifter. The
narrator distinguishes between the two types of yearning and the restlessness
that is involved. The woman who cannot afford the article might revisit the
window and gain sadness upon the mere sight of it, even though she knows she
will never own it:
“Though she recognizes that she will never be able to buy the article,
the renunciation and the desire…often give rise to a not too keen but rather
faint and sweetly sad emotion. And she enjoys feeling it.”
Then, when discussing an item she can afford, this desire often brings on
“acute pain,” and even restlessness. Otama’s longing is then compared to
“that of a woman for an expensive article she admired from a distance, but he
now turned into an article she wanted to buy.” The “he” is in reference to
a young medical student named Okada. And it is through her desire for him (which
is likely her first experience of such) that forces her to examine her own
wants—wants that up until this point, she had overlooked.
The Wild Geese is a spare, yet intricate, read. The narrative moves quickly and the characters are developed in a way that successfully reveals their passiveness and internal weaknesses. It is a good book that clearly has paved the path for later writers, and for those seeking the early inspiration for the great Japanese Masters that filled the 20th Century, Ogai Mori is not a writer to overlook.
[An expurgated version of this article originally appeared on the Blogcritics website.]
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