A Healing Family, Kenzaburo Oe's first book since winning the Nobel
Prize for Literature, is an intimate portrait of the people closest
to him. Above all, it is about his son Hikari. Hikari was born in
1963 with a growth on his brain so large it made him look as if he
had two heads. His parents were told he might never be more than a
"human vegetable" requiring constant care; but they took the decision
to raise him. Today, despite autism, poor vision, and a tendency to
seizures, their son is an established composer with two successful
CDs to his credit. Oe has often written about the sorrows and
satisfactions of being the parent of a handicapped child, most
memorably in A Personal Matter; but nowhere has his writing been more
personal, more buoyant, more revealing than in this non-fiction work.
Without diminishing the suffering that Hikari and his family have
been through, he celebrates the victories that can be won, especially
his son's gift for music--his own "language." Friends make an
appearance along the way--doctors, musicians, other writers--as do
the themes that have preoccupied Oe all his life: the rights of the
underprivileged; the moral authority of the survivors of the atomic
bombing; the mystery of language. But his thoughts keep circling back
to his family--to the healing power of the family, and the unwitting
courage we can all find in ourselves. The book is illustrated with
sketches of family life painted by his wife.
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