Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan

Donald Keene

Published by Columbia University Press 2008

Chronicles of My Life

An American in the Heart of Japan

Donald Keene
Illustrator: Akira Yamaguchi

https://doi.org/10.7312/keen14440

Overview
Contents

About this book

In this eloquent and wholly absorbing memoir, the renowned scholar Donald Keene shares more than half a century of his extraordinary adventures as a student of Japan. Keene begins with an account of his bittersweet childhood in New York; he then describes his initial encounters with Asia and Europe and the way in which his role as a Navy interpreter complicated that experience during World War II. He captures the sights, scents, and sounds of Japan as they first enveloped him and writes of his postwar travels and the well-known intellectuals who later shaped his academic career. A fascinating tale of two cultures colliding, Chronicles of My Life is also a thrilling account of the emotions and experiences that connect us all, regardless of our individual origins.

"I sometimes think that if, as the result of an accident, I were to lose my knowledge of Japanese, there would not be much left for me. Japanese, which at first had no connection with my ancestors, my literary tastes, or my awareness of myself as a person, has become the central element of my life."

In this eloquent and wholly absorbing memoir, the renowned scholar Donald Keene shares more than half a century of his extraordinary adventures as a student of Japan. Keene begins with an account of his bittersweet childhood in New York; then he describes his initial encounters with Asia and Europe and the way in which World War II complicated that experience. He captures the sights, scents, and sounds of Japan as they first enveloped him, and talks of the unique travels and well-known intellectuals who later shaped the contours of his academic career.

Keene traces the movement of his passions with delicacy and subtlety, deftly weaving his love for Japan into a larger narrative about identity and home and the circumstances that led a Westerner to find solace in a country on the opposite side of the world. Chronicles of My Life is not only a fascinating tale of two cultures colliding, but also a thrilling account of the emotions and experiences that connect us all, regardless of our individual origins.

Author / Editor information

Donald Keene is Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University. He is the author of more than thirty books, including Frog in the Well: Portraits of Japan by Watanabe Kazan, 1793-1841; Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World; and Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan; as well as the definitive multivolume history of Japanese literature.

Reviews

Erik R. Lofgren:
[Keene] shares and teaches, speaking in vignettes by turns wistful, forceful, and lyrical.... This slim volume [is] a pleasure to read.

Few memoirs have the concision, modesty, and charm that mark this late-life work by Donald Keene, America's most renowned scholar and interpreter of Japan.

Roland Kelts:
Gratifying... picaresque.... The pathos at the heart of Keene's lovely and gracious memoir, and perhaps of his extraordinary life, emanates from this very human limitation: we cannot live in and love two worlds at once.

Robert Elegant:
Keene's book soars, largely because of his intriguing, highly personal account of the literary milieu of Japan, particularly its drama, whether on stage or screen.... [An] engaging and eloquent memoir.

Andrew Monahan:
Lovingly illustrated by the artist Akira Yamaguchi, the book limns a life inseparably linked to its dominant passion.... The history is fascinating, and the literary life Keene has doggedly carved out of it, remarkable.

Topics

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Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 208
Illustrations
- Other: 36 illus.

eBook

Published: May 19, 2008
ISBN: 9780231513487