Description

Prefiguring the essential modernist sounds of the Western literary canon, Akutagawa creates using a trenchant mental accuracy that exposes the moving customs and ironies of early twentieth century China and shows their own drained link to it. These tales are shifting glimpses right into a cast of people at odds with the culture around them, single pictures that rise efficiently toward the common. "What good is intelligence if you fail to find a helpful despair?" Akutagawa once mused. Equally sharp helpful despair and "intellect" buoy this amazing selection.