Book Description
This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Thomson Gale on October 12, 2007. The length of the article is 534 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Kenzaburo Oé: la mirada de un niño triste.(autor)
Author: Susana Tejedor
Publication: Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 12, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 1167Page: 62(1)

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from World Literature Today, published by University of Oklahoma on March 22, 2002. The length of the article is 7792 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: "And a little child shall lead them." The Agency of the Innocent in an Early Story by Oe Kenzaburo.(Critical Essay)
Author: Marleigh Grayer Ryan
Publication: World Literature Today (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2002
Publisher: University of Oklahoma
Volume: 76Issue: 2Page: 49(9)

Article Type: Critical Essay

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on June 22, 2003. The length of the article is 362 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Kenzaburo Oe. Somersault.(Book Review)
Author: Jason Picone
Publication: The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 2003
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: 23Issue: 2Page: 131(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Letras Libres, published by Thomson Gale on April 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1020 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Días Robados: las dos versiones de Oé.(Kenzaburo Oé, autora)
Author: Juan Villoro
Publication: Letras Libres (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2004
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 6Issue: 64Page: 68(1)

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA) on May 26, 1997. The length of the article is 525 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Kenzaburo Oé y el humanismo. (escritor japonés ganador de premio Nobel visita Madrid, España)(TT: Kenzaburo Oé and humanism) (TA: Japanese Nobel prize winning writer visits Madrid, Spain)
Author: Angel Vivas
Publication: Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 26, 1997
Publisher: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
Issue: n639Page: p74(2)

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from World Literature Today, published by University of Oklahoma on January 1, 2002. The length of the article is 3768 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: America through the eyes of Oe Kenzaburo.
Author: Sidney Devere Brown
Publication: World Literature Today (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2002
Publisher: University of Oklahoma
Volume: 76Issue: 1Page: 24(6)

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from World Literature Today, published by University of Oklahoma on January 1, 2002. The length of the article is 839 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Oe Kenzaburo: an introductory note.(Brief Article)
Author: William Riggan
Publication: World Literature Today (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2002
Publisher: University of Oklahoma
Volume: 76Issue: 1Page: 4(2)

Article Type: Brief Article

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Amazon.com
In The Music of Light, Lindsley Cameron chronicles the Japanese writer Kenzaburo Oe's remarkable relationship with his son Hikari.Although Hikari was born with a severe brain deformity that resulted in retardation, autism, near-blindness, and poor coordination, he has become an accomplished composer of classical music. Kenzaburo Oe, the winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature, has written much about Hikari and the rest of his family over the years. Cameron studies the intersections between Oe's life and work in this volume. She also discusses the nature of creativity, the scientific theories about brain injuries, and the history of musical savants.

Oe's close relationship with his son is unusual, especially in Japanese society, where men do not usually get very involved with raising their children. While helping Hikari deal with his health problems, the Oe family struggled to cope with their culture's severe discrimination against disabled people. Cameron describes Hikari's musical development and his amazing ability to memorize songs. Hikari's life story is an inherently fascinating one--a man who cannot express himself very well verbally somehow figured out how to do something most people cannot do: make up songs. Cameron interviewed both men and other family members for this book, and has done a good job of capturing their personalities on paper.Hikari and Kenzaburo Oe influence each other's work tremendously, and the elder Oe's writing and fame have had an enormous impact on the family's life. Fans of Kenzaburo Oe and people who are interested in the roots of creativity will find a lot to like in this book. --Jill Marquis Book Description

The most popular classical composer of our day was born with a medical deformity so severe that his parents had to fight to keep him alive. When the child of novelist Kenzaburo Oe and his wife, Yukari, was born with a herniated brain, the doctors recommended letting him die. Instead, his parents defied Japan's then-harsh customs and saved him with a complicated operation that left him severely handicapped. They named him Hikari, which means "light"; now in his thirties, with an I.Q. of 65, limited language and motor skills, and an inability to express emotions clearly, Hikari has indeed become a beacon of inspiration. He has miraculous musical gifts, including a phenomenal memory and the ability to compose chamber works that have broken sales records and delighted hundreds of thousands of listeners.

His father's boundless love for and devotion to Hikari have been inspirational in more than one way. Kenzaburo Oe has written many novels and essays based on the experience of raising his musical-savant son, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1994. His stories and novels have been translated into many languages and read by millions.

Based on exclusive access to the Oe family, as well as interviews with brain specialists and performers of Hikari's music, and including assessments by leading music critics, The Music of Light offers a portrait of uniqueness. Hikari is the only savant known in history who has composed original music. Lindsley Cameron explains how his brain works; how he can express sadness in his music but not with language or his face; and how his musical activities have extended his mental capacities. The creative interdependence of father and son is unprecedented, too. Kenzaburo's need to give Hikari a voice was so essential to his own art that he announced, just before winning the Nobel Prize, that he was giving up writing fiction because Hikari, through his music, had now found a voice of his own. Cameron shows how writing has allowed Kenzaburo to explore possibilities too painful to confront in any other way. The Music of Light explores the mysteries of the human brain, and reveals the miraculous power of creativity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This has probably changed many lives
This is the best book I've read this year. It covers so much: a family's love for their brain damaged child and their commitment to the grueling, challenging years raising him in a society that wants him to just disappear. It is at once literary criticism, classical music criticism, cultural commentary, biography, pschology, psychiatry, medicine and a touchingly told love story between man and son. By the end of this book you will fallen in love with Hikari the sweet savant from Kobe and his wonderful father, Kenzaburo. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A.B.C.D. Encirclement
Sure to please americans in their expectations of what the contemporary Japanese are like. But its only [information] for a foreign market and it's diseased media. In fact the BOMBING of Pearl Harbor was a very festive commemoration. Deal with it. ... Read more