{"title":"Nobuo Kojima","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"embracing-family-book-nobuo-kojima-9781564784056","title":"Embracing Family","description":"Set during the U.S. Occupation following World War II, Embracing Family is a novel of conflict--between Western and Eastern traditions, between a husband and wife, between ideals and reality. At the opening of the book, Miwa Shunsuke and his wife are trapped in a strained marriage, subtly attacking one another in a manner similar to that of the characters in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? When his wife has an affair with an American GI, Miwa is forced to come to terms with the disintegration of their relationship and the fact that his attempts to repair it only exacerbate the situation. An award-winning novel, critics have read this book as a metaphor of postwar Japanese society, in which the traditional moral and philosophical basis of Japanese culture is neglected in favor of Western conventions.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50097494130961,"sku":"CIN1564784053G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51037714579729,"sku":"NIN9781564784056","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51456542769425,"sku":"CIN1564784053VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52670106206481,"sku":"NLS9781564784056","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/B078GCHM68.jpg?v=1750798250"},{"product_id":"long-belts-and-thin-men-book-nobuo-kojima-9784902075762","title":"Long Belts and Thin Men","description":"Kojima Nobuo is best-known in English for his outstanding novella, Amerikan sukuuru (1954, The American School), which earned the Akutagawa Prize that year. Strongly affected by World War I and the postwar era, his style evolved into a powerful, often painfully honest satire depicting the Japanese male as a Milquetoast, under the thumbs of women and society in general. Influenced by Gogol and other giants of Russian literature, Kojima's style and technique immerse the reader in the doubts and dilemmas of his characters to powerful effect. Kojima's award-winning story, The American School, depicts the visit of a group of Japanese English-language teachers to an international school for the children of Americans and others living in Japan. The reactions of the educators as they walk eight miles to the school and come into contact with transplanted American culture for the first time are both touching and comical; the perfect satire. Many of his stories from this period deal with the irony, pain, and internal turmoil of men who have not come to grips with the society of post-War Japan, or their place within it. In addition to The American School, this volume contains a number of his other important works, illuminating the trials faced by the Japanese following World War I, individually and as a society, through the eyes of a succession of world-weary and ineffectual protagonists.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51063429136657,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51063432249617,"sku":"NIN9784902075762","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/4902075768.jpg?v=1751190271"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-nobuo-kojima.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}