Review of In Dreams: The Very Short Stories of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa by by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

I often re-read Akutagawa’s stories.

Before this publication I had read all of his stories in English, even the ones translated online and obscure scholarly publications. I had read about 97 pieces total. This book brings the total number of pieces available in English closer to 150, which is around half of the author’s total production. I wish this book had been published by Penguin to compliment their other Akutagawa volume, but a smaller publisher is better than no publisher I suppose. I interviewed the translator here:

https://thecollidescope.com/2021/06/1…

I truly hope Choi goes on to translate the remainder of Akutagawa’s oeuvre. In regard to this slim volume, the translation is consistent and captures the voice I remember from the more well-known volumes of Akutagawa’s works, but the stories are more incidental pieces of less formal construction. They read like the author’s diary entries more than polished stories. I personally think this book rounds out my understanding of the author as an artist. Notebooks are often cauldrons for ideas, where writers toss in whatever they come up with to see what congeals. I do that in my notebooks and I enjoyed reading the synthesis of poetry, dream-logic, reminiscence, and psychological insight to be found here. Akutagawa is often very subtle and it might take more than one reading to get what he means. After completing this book, I turned to the front and read it a second time. I think I’ve read my other Akutagawa books at least 3 times each. Yet I keep returning to them. For me, they are the best of Japanese fiction. The psychology and observation of this author are equal to that of Balzac and Tolstoy in my eyes, but he did not seemingly possess the time, workhorse mentality, or mental stability of the giants of French and Russian literature. If he had been more disciplined or controlled in his habits and frame of mind, if he had not been plagued by illness and frustration, I imagine he would accomplished much more with his writing. As it is, we possess an intriguing and moving collection of tales, fables, and fragments of a flawed author who dissects his time and place with humor and pathos at every turn, offering a unique lens with which to encounter the world. Alongside Soseki and Tanizaki and Kawabata, Akutagawa seems the essential Japanese author. He is more relevant and consistent than Lady Murasaki and more timeless than Murakami. His greatest stories are as stirring and bizarre as the works of Gogol, and his minor pieces offer insight into his disturbed psyche by incremental stages. A breathless depression suffuses much of his work, a terror of the mere fact of having to live. Instead of bothering me, this penchant merely captivates me.

This collection ranges from dreamy accounts of short trips the author took, to outlines for bedtime stories and captures moments of struggle with the duty of writing. He describes what he is doing and writing and with every short fragment there is some underlying charm or unexpected description. There is no end to what you can uncover in this varied and poignant book, but a lot of it will whiz by you without leaving much of an impression unless you first have a deep understanding of the author’s previous writings. Some of these posthumous pieces reflect back aspects of his great stories, and the meditations on hunting, the Great Earthquake, hot springs, memories and so forth only add layers to the figure I have come to appreciate over the years of my acquaintance with his works.