Good account of an important author's life, fascinating and moving. A good introduction to his work.

Natsume Soseki was undoubtedly one of Japan's biggest authors and literary figures. Having read a few of his novels and stories, I was vaguely aware of some bits and pieces surrounding his life, so when I found out that a proper biography was out I was ecstatic.

John Nathan has done a really impressive job compiling the life and accomplishments of such a great literary figure in this tome. His prose was academic enough while also being accessible to non-academics and his writing style and way of orginising his content was very engaging and kept me wanting to continue reading. One thing I did not like as much was the analysis of big chunks of Soseki's novels, which seemed a bit too extensive. Perhaps I could have appreciated them more had I read the entirety of his oeuvre and was undaunted by possible spoilers.

Soseki's life story is truly fascinating to read, even though his character was not as praise-worthy as his literary production and contribution was. Nonetheless, no one can deny his massive role in shaping modern Japanese literature and the author of this book has done a wonderful job letting us in on some of his genius.

Excellent biography of the Japanese writer Soseki – detailed, well-researched and well-written, informative and engaging.

This was a fairly decent memoir but I felt it a bit of a slog. Nathan is really brilliant at bringing Sōseki alive, but I think reading his work is a lot more of a pleasure for me than the truth about him as a man.

Thorough, interesting and accessible look at the life (and works) of one of the major Japanese novelists.

"Unless we're prepared to destroy our nerves or go mad or be imprisoned if we are wrong, we'll never be men of literature." (Soseki)

Sōseki Natsume seems to be as beloved in Japan as Jane Austen is in Britain, and his popularity in the West is rising since Haruki Murakami declared him to be his favorite writer. Soseki (1867-1916) was the first major Japanese author who incorporated Western literary techniques and viewpoints into his novels and thus revolutionized Japanese literature - at the same time, he was very critical of the West, as he was well aware that the opening of Japan towards Western values and traditions came with a price.

Nathan excels when he describes Soseki as a person: His unhappy childhood, his lifelong physical and mental ailments, his abusive tendencies towards his wife and children, his feverish working habits, his narcissism, his outlook on life - Nathan paints a vivid picture, and he has dug up numerous letters and interviews to prove his reconstructions.

Nevertheless, the book falls short when it comes to discussing Soseki's critical viewpoints towards Westernization and industrialization as they appear in his novels. About Soseki's time in London, Nathan writes: "(...) perhaps he was not entirely wrong, whether he knew it or not, when he claimed that he was part Westerner and part Japanese. Certainly, the pain that this cultural bifurcation caused him in his creative life reflected Japan's confusion at this confounding moment of transformation." The nature and extent of this transformation is not made clear later in the book or pointed out in Soseki's texts.

The summaries of Soseki's works are very long, and it does not always become clear why all these details are mentioned. Nathan mainly focuses on Soseki's (modern) evocation of characters and classic topic of self-interest vs. love, but hardly points out how he discusses wider social and political topics in his work.

Some time before I read this book, I read Henry Scott Stokes' biography of Yukio Mishima, The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima: Both Soseki and Mishima were struggling all their lives while walking the line between Western and Japanese culture, between tradition and modernity, and both were highly complex and not necessarily particularly sympathetic characters (Mishima became an extremist and ended his life by committing seppuku after a failed coup d'état). In comparison though, Stokes was better able to highlight different aspects of Mishima's literary achievements and importance, the picture felt more three-dimensional.

Still, Nathan is very obviously an extremely qualified expert and the insights he delivers are well thought out, conclusive and instructive. He also presents and discusses different opinions on Soseki's work, which I appreciated. There is no question why this professor for Japanese culture is widely acclaimed for his translations and research.