Jan. 31: Oe Kenzaburo, Japanese novelist

BORN JANUARY 31:

Oe Kenzaburo (1935 - ) Japanese novelist, short story writer, and essayist. A major literary figure in his home country, he was influenced in his early days by French and American literature, and has used his insights to oppose nuclear weapons and power, the power wielded by the Japanese Imperial household, and other issues. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994. The semi-autobiographical novel A Personal Matter tells the story of a young father grappling with the severe mental disability of his newborn son; The Silent Cry tells the story of two brothers in the early 1960s who, after decades of separation, deal with their own crises on a visit to their ancestral village in the countryside.

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