| The Fox and Dr. Shimamura Contributor(s): Wunnicke, Christine (Author), Boehm, Philip (Translator) |
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ISBN: 0811226247 ISBN-13: 9780811226240 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation OUR PRICE: $14.36 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Absurdist - Fiction | Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology - Fiction | Literary |
| Dewey: 833.92 |
| LCCN: 2018039751 |
| Physical Information: 0.5" H x 5.1" W x 8" (0.35 lbs) 160 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Winner of the 2020 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translation Prize The Fox and Dr. Shimamura toothsomely encompasses East and West, memory and reality, fox-possession myths, and psychiatric mythmaking. As an outstanding young Japanese medical student at the end of the nineteenth century, Dr. Shimamura is sent--to his dismay--to the provinces: he is asked to cure scores of young women afflicted by an epidemic of fox possession. Believing it's all a hoax, he considers the assignment an insulting joke, until he sees a fox moving under the skin of a young beauty... Next he travels to Europe and works with such luminaries as Charcot, Breuer and Freud--whose methods, Dr. Shimamura concludes, are incompatible with Japanese politeness. The ironic parallels between Charcot's theories of female hysteria and ancient Japanese fox myths--when it comes to beautiful, writhing young women--are handled with a lightly sardonic touch by Christine Wunnicke, whose flavor-packed, inventive language is a delight.
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Contributor Bio(s): Wunnicke, Christine: - Christine Wunnicke lives in Munich, Germany. She has published four award-winning novels, a biography, and several translations.Boehm, Philip: - Philip Boehm is an American playwright, theater director, and the translator of numerous books, including Ingeborg Bachmann's Malina (forthcoming from New Directions). |