The Fox and Dr. Shimamura
Christine Wunnicke$13.56
$15.95
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.
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Published: 04/30/2019
ISBN: 9780811226240
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.35lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.10w x 0.50d
Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 02/04/2019
Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2019 pg. 34
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.
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Published: 04/30/2019
ISBN: 9780811226240
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.35lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.10w x 0.50d
Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 02/04/2019
Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2019 pg. 34