Overview

"During the Heian period of ancient Japan (794-1185 AD), when Chinese was still the official language of power and politics, even privileged women of the imperial court were not allowed to learn Chinese and wrote instead in Japanese, using kana - an abbreviated and vernacular system of written characters. Writing in this subordinate script, they produced some of the greatest works of world literature, including Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji - often considered the first novel - and Sei Shonagon's sui generis, confessional Pillow Book. This personal essay by the acclaimed Rivka Galchen sets out from these ancient Japanese women writers in search of ""the small"" throughout the history of literature - from Emily Dickinson to Fyodor Dostoevsky, from Robert Walser to Marianne Moore - before returning to the Land of the Rising Sun and its contemporary boom of young female Japanese crime fiction writers."

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9780811222969

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Reviews

A highly original book of essays and observations. Many mothers (and other sleepless readers) will pick up this book and feel that they have found an unexpectedly intimate friend. Not your mother's motherhood lit. Brief, gemlike reflections on adjusting to life under the rule of a baby daughter (called 'the puma') are interwoven with literary and historical references. It's a book that will ring both familiar and strange.

Galchen does something more profound than tackle motherhood; she utterly reinvents and reanimates the subject.--Christopher Bollen Witty and delightfully intelligent.--Carolyn Kellogg A quietly revolutionary little book. Everything one could possibly need is dispensed via dense, tiny, mysterious pellets--a fortified shot of literary enrichment we didn't even know we needed, but that now feels vital and enthralling. A highly original book: I adore Galchen's quiet and bravery. I am confident that many mothers (and other sleepless readers) will pick up this book and feel that they have found an unexpectedly intimate friend. Not your mother's motherhood lit. Brief, gemlike reflections on adjusting to life under the rule of a baby daughter (called 'the puma'): it's a book that will ring both familiar and strange.

Not your mother's motherhood lit. Brief, gemlike reflections on adjusting to life under the rule of a baby daughter (called `the puma') are interwoven with literary and historical references. It's a book that will ring both familiar and strange. -- NPR (Best Books of the Year) A highly original book of essays and observations. Many mothers (and other sleepless readers) will pick up this book and feel that they have found an unexpectedly intimate friend. -- The New York Times Book Review

Author Information

"RIVKA GALCHEN's 2008 first novel Atmospheric Disturbances and her 2014 story collection American Innovations were both New York Times Best Books of the Year. She received her MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. ""Conspicuously talented"" (Time), Galchen lives in New York City."

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