Japanese novel blurring the boundaries between high and popular literature
Once upon a time, parents gave their children names similar to those of characters in famous novels. Today, however, people give themselves whatever names they like, and things are a little different between lovers.
This is the world he lives in with his girlfriend named Songbird and his cat Henry IV. narrator of the novel Goodbye, Gangsters, who works as a poetry teacher at the Poetry School. Who are the mysterious Gangsters who endlessly terrorize this world, and what problems does the hero of the novel face in his unconventional job?
Gen'ichiro Takahashi has created a world in his debut novel, in which he mixes prose with poetry, the serious with the comic, a world full of unbridled imagination and story (maybe better stories), that touches everything from love, politics, media, poetry, parenthood, terrorism, of comic books, from the vampires to the language itself, with which it is told.
Goodbye, Gangsters is a novel that blurred the boundaries between high and popular literature, opening the door to a new era of consumerism and pop culture in Japanese literature.
The book was supported by the Japan Foundation.
