Review of Reconciliation by Naoya Shiga

A quiet and simple story in the best I-novel tradition.

Shiga pioneered this style and joined the ranks of Soseki and others in giving slice of life and autobiographical fiction a place in Japanese literature. His book A Dark Night’s Passing is considered by some the first I-novel. Like his other stories, the author channels powerful emotions using straightforward language.

I don’t normally appreciate reading books about writers who struggle to write a book. But When Shiga complained to Soseki about his lack of inspiration, Soseki told him to just write a book about his inability to write. While this would be inadvisable these days, I think back then a lot of authors in early twentieth century Japan were struggling to find a voice amid the Western literature that was making its way into their country for the first time. But Shiga takes this interior conflict and expand it to encompass the struggle of a family man who is bombarded by fate with trying circumstances.

In this classic short and digestible novel, we follow the struggles of a floundering author who has just gotten married and has a kid on the way. The scenes of domestic strife and child-bearing are stirring, but fall short of brilliance. Where the work truly shines is in its depiction of illness unto death. The agony of witnessing the physical collapse of a human being is heartrending here, and is described in relation to both the very young and very old. His relationships with his family, especially his father, display an uncompromising pride. While the character growth is not given a lot of space to breathe, he does end the tale on a cheerful note, which the reader might surmise, he did for his own peace of mind. The author character talks about his personal and intimate approach to writing, which allowed him to process the interior fragments of his discontent and sorrow into a crystalline expression of human triumph and even day-to-day coping.

Shiga’s books are often more memorable than his contemporaries, I think, due to their pared down style and their bleak yet uplifting plots.