William Ridgeway holds a BA in Japanese from UCLA, an MA in Asian Studies from Sophia University (Tokyo), and a PhD in Japanese Literature from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. He is the author of A Critical Study of the Novels of Natsume Sōse
"The confessions of the characters, full of passion and intensity,
are writ large in the book. A lot more of these 'insights' of the
heart and mind makes for a didactic novel, but the ideas must be
welcomed for their honesty and the forthcoming way they were
blurted out and shared. . . . Nowaki is not only an epigrammatic
novel, with every other page containing the kind of insane quotes
worth underlining, but also a key work closely tethered to the
novelist's themes. It explicitly identifies and discusses the
abstractions that beset the protagonists of later novels. It could
be Sôseki's most 'preachy' novel, surprisingly political in parts,
and is a definite throwback to the subtle feelings and subdued
atmospheres generated by works such as Kokoro and Mon. Nevertheless
it illuminates the undercurrent of cynicism running through his
mature novels. More than a novel, [Nowaki] is an 'essay on
character.'"--Rise
"The irony in the portrayal of characters, even those with whom
Sôseki seems to sympathize, and the sharpness of the details of
life in the Tokyo of 1907, make this work more enjoyable than many
of his more accomplished novels."--Donald Keene, Dawn to the
West
"Written by an intellectual steeped in the traditions of Chinese
learning and English literature, Nowaki stands apart from the works
of the naturalist school in its audacity of moral judgment, its
rigorous intellectuality, and its defense of certain literary and
moral ideals."--Angela Yiu, Chaos and Order in the Works of Natsume
Sôseki
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