Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan

by Donald Keene, Akira Yamaguchi (Illustrator)

Overview

"I sometimes think that if, as the result of an accident, I were to lose my knowledge of Japanese, there would not be much left for me. Japanese, which at first had no connection with my ancestors, my literary tastes, or my awareness of myself as a person, has become the central element of my life."

In this eloquent and wholly absorbing memoir, the renowned scholar Donald Keene shares more than half a century of his extraordinary adventures as a student of Japan. Keene begins with an account of his bittersweet childhood in New York; then he describes his initial encounters with Asia and Europe and the way in which World War II complicated that experience. He captures the sights, scents, and sounds of Japan as they first enveloped him, and talks of the unique travels and well-known intellectuals who later shaped the contours of his academic career.

Keene traces the movement of his passions with delicacy and subtlety, deftly weaving his love for Japan into a larger narrative about identity and home and the circumstances that led a Westerner to find solace in a country on the opposite side of the world. Chronicles of My Life is not only a fascinating tale of two cultures colliding, but also a thrilling account of the emotions and experiences that connect us all, regardless of our individual origins.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231144414
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	11/02/2009
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Donald Keene is Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University. He is the author of more than thirty books, including Frog in the Well: Portraits of Japan by Watanabe Kazan, 1793-1841; Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World; and Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan; as well as the definitive multivolume history of Japanese literature.

What People are Saying About This

Laurel Rasplica Rodd

A beautifully written narration of the formation of a scholar/'life artist' that traces the boyhood and early influences of Donald Keene, his gradual awakening to an awareness of other cultures and languages, his introduction to the Chinese and then the Japanese language and culture, his military service during World War II, and his later interactions with many of the major figures of the Japanese literary world of the latter half of the twentieth century.

— Laurel Rasplica Rodd, professor of Japanese, University of Colorado

Stephen Miller

As arguably the most important person in the creation and establishment of Japan studies in the West, Donald Keene—as well as the work he has produced and the work he has inspired—is certainly deserving of a book-length autobiography. Chronicles of My Life presents a clear view of the arc of an important scholar's life, his involvement with Japan, and the situations that led him to and the events that led him through its study.

— Stephen Miller, assistant professor of Japanese, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Editorial Reviews

Gratifying... picaresque.... The pathos at the heart of Keene's lovely and gracious memoir, and perhaps of his extraordinary life, emanates from this very human limitation: we cannot live in and love two worlds at once.

Bookforum - Roland Kelts

[Keene] shares and teaches, speaking in vignettes by turns wistful, forceful, and lyrical.... This slim volume [is] a pleasure to read.

World Literature Today - Erik R. Lofgren

Keene's book soars, largely because of his intriguing, highly personal account of the literary milieu of Japan, particularly its drama, whether on stage or screen.... [An] engaging and eloquent memoir.

Times Literary Supplement - Robert Elegant

Few memoirs have the concision, modesty, and charm that mark this late-life work by Donald Keene, America's most renowned scholar and interpreter of Japan.

Foreword

Lovingly illustrated by the artist Akira Yamaguchi, the book limns a life inseparably linked to its dominant passion.... The history is fascinating, and the literary life Keene has doggedly carved out of it, remarkable.

TIME, Asia Edition - Andrew Monahan

[Keene] shares and teaches, speaking in vignettes by turns wistful, forceful, and lyrical.... This slim volume [is] a pleasure to read.

— Erik R. Lofgren

World Literature Today

Gratifying... picaresque.... The pathos at the heart of Keene's lovely and gracious memoir, and perhaps of his extraordinary life, emanates from this very human limitation: we cannot live in and love two worlds at once.

— Roland Kelts

Bookforum

Keene's book soars, largely because of his intriguing, highly personal account of the literary milieu of Japan, particularly its drama, whether on stage or screen.... [An] engaging and eloquent memoir.

— Robert Elegant

Times Literary Supplement

American scholar and translator Keene traces his lifelong fascination with Japanese literature. Covering some of the same ground as a previous memoir (On Familiar Terms, 1994), the author points to his college years at Columbia-which he entered as a 16-year-old scholarship student in 1938-as the beginning of his attachment to Asian culture. A Chinese classmate taught him to read and write some Chinese characters. When he discovered The Tale of Genji (in translation) in 1940, it showed him there was more to Japan than the militaristic nation occupying China. The "distant and beautiful world" invoked in Genji also provided refuge from the war Keene hated even though he knew it was unavoidable. He began to study Japanese, then after Pearl Harbor was attacked, he got further training at the Navy Japanese Language School in San Francisco. For the rest of the war, he translated captured Japanese documents and interpreted for prisoners in the Pacific. A brief visit to Tokyo was the last he saw of Japan for eight years, during which he pursued graduate studies at Columbia, Harvard and Cambridge, where he met Genji translator Arthur Waley. A fellowship in 1953 took Keene to Kyoto, where he began writing reviews for Japanese journals and became engaged in the debate between modern and traditional forms of Japanese literature. Putting together his seminal Anthology of Japanese Literature (1955) brought him into contact with a wealth of bunjin (men of letters), including Yukio Mishima, Nobel Prize laureate Yasunari Kawabata, Kenzabura Oe and Kobo Abe. It was the launch of a long, fruitful career bringing important works of Japanese literature to readers of English, still going strong when ModernJapanese Diaries was published in 1995. Keene's observations on Japanese culture and society will be enlightening for Western readers. Humorous sketches by Akira Yamaguchi and evocative period photos provide a visual counterpoint to his elegantly dry text. Unique reflections capture a half-century of momentous transformation.

Kirkus Reviews