The Girl I Left Behind

ISBN: 9780811213035

出版社: New Directions Publishing Corporation

出版年: 1995-11

页数: 194

定价: USD 21.95

装帧: Hardcover

内容简介

From Publishers Weekly

"Some 35 years have passed since I wrote this novel and, on rereading it, I am struck by the immature technique revealed in certain places." So writes Endo (Deep River) in a candid afterword. Endo, Japan's foremost Catholic novelist, is a good critic of his own work, for this novel is a sentimental tale filled with coincidence and heavy Christian symbolism. Yoshioka Tsutomu, a typical Japanese salaryman, hears a disembodied voice in his head that says: "It's not possible for someone to interact with a fellow human being without leaving some traces." Specifically, the voice (which belongs to Jesus Christ) refers to a country girl named Morita Mitsu, whom Yoshioka seduced when he was a college student. Their affair was a shabby thing: Yoshioka exploited Mitsu's sympathy for his slight limp, caused by childhood polio, to get her into bed. Mitsu's a true naif, down to the sentimental pop songs she sings and the movie stars she adores. As far as Yoshioka's concerned, it's a one-night stand. But Mitsu keeps popping into his life at the oddest moments: a misshaped crucifix she acquired on their evening together resurfaces in Yoshioka's life; later, he falls in love with a woman who used to work with Mitsu. Inevitably, he meets her again, but under greatly altered circumstances, an encounter that leads Mitsu to a life of Christian charity. Flawed and awkward as it is, this early novel by a writer who has since come to be viewed as a master has moments of sparkling intelligence and clarity.

Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

作者简介

遠藤周作，一九二三年生於東京，慶應大學法文系畢業，別號狐狸庵山人，曾先後獲芥川獎、谷崎潤一郎獎等多項日本文學大獎，一九九五年獲日本文化勳章。遠藤承襲了自夏目漱石、經芥川龍之介至崛辰雄一脈相傳的傳統，在近代日本文學中居承先啟後的地位。

生於東京、在中國大連度過童年的遠藤周作，於一九三三年隨離婚的母親回到日本；由於身體虛弱，使他在二次世界大戰期間未被徵召入伍，而進入慶應大學攻讀法國文學，並在一九五○年成為日本戰後第一批留學生，前往法國里昂大學留學達二年之久。

回到日本之後，遠藤周作隨即展開了他的作家生涯。作品有以宗教信仰為主的，也有老少咸宜的通俗小說，著有《母親》、《影子》、《醜聞》、《海與毒藥》、《沉默》、《武士》、《深河》等書。一九九六年九月辭世，享年七十三歲。

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