© Columbia University Press
So Lovely a Country Will Never Perish: Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers
April, 2010
Cloth, 192 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-15146-7
$24.95
/ £16.95
""The century’s leading expert on Japanese literature, as well as its most indefatigable translator."—Anatole Broyard, New York Times Book Review"A writer with an unobtrusively elegant style, a sneaky wit, and a unique perspective. Professor Keene is not only America’s preeminent scholar of Japanese literature but also one of the most eminent literay scholars in Japan."—New Yorker"[Keen] is a master narrator with an eye for fascinating details."—Library Journal"America’s most renowned scholar and interpreter of Japan."—Foreword"Our most important scholar of Japanese literature."—World Literature Today" —
"Keene shows the complicated and varied reactions to the war." — Lorien Kaye, The Age
"Keene has scoured the wartime diaries of numerous Japanese writers and judiciously woven excerpts into an elegant narrative that provides some acute insights into the mentality of the Japanese during the years of their greatest crisis. " — Anthony Head, Times Literary Supplement
"[A] superb little book." — Ian Buruma, New York Review of Books
"These diaries give illuminating personal accounts by gifted writers of what conditions were like in wartime and immediate postwar Japan. The book's organization is clear and logical, and the prose is brisk and smooth. It makes an enormous contribution to the field of Japanese studies." — Steve Rabson, Brown University