I just finished [Rashomon et autres contes] by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. My copy contains the four following stories:
Rashomon
Figures infernales (Hell Screen)
Dans le fourre (In the Grove)
Gruau d'ignames (Yam Gruel)

Although I am not usually a short story reader, these were perfect reading for when I had nothing to do at work. Anyone familiar with Akutagawa or Japanese cinema should be familiar with Rashomon and In the Grove. I had already read these during my undergrad studies but I went ahead and reread them.

No matter how many times you read Rashomon, Akutagawa's imagery is just remarkable, and quite harrowing. You are immediately transported and afterward, you can't get the thoughts out of your head while images and feelings from Kubrick's "The Birds" and "Psycho" tend to also stick out.

In the Grove is a classic story deliberating over point of views. How we can all experience the same thing and yet come out with different memories. Who is right? Who is wrong? In terms of memory, can we really be wrong. What we remember is what we believe we experienced thus how can that be wrong. I've always prided myself at being very good at remembering events and details at those events. And it always bothers me when someone remembers it incorrectly. But this story tries to convince me that I might be indeed the person who is incorrect.

Out of the two stories that I wasn't familiar with Hell's Screen was the most impacting. It was remarkable. A painter getting caught up in his art and to what extent he'll go to complete his masterpiece. Remarkable story with quite the horrendous ending.

With Yam's Gruel I kept waiting for a twist, an impacting moment but it was a simple tale basically stating that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Simple. Short. The moral we all know and remember, but this story I probably won't. ( )

Akutagawa Ryūnosuke is a Japanese master of the form. In his hands, a short story is a short story. That is to say, it is quick. His words are efficient, without sacrificing the complexity of a plot. His tales are suffused with nuance and concrete details. His themes are large themes. His main concerns are basic. He is interested in the ambiguities of human choice, the uncontrollable passions suddenly flaring, the travails of the outcast, and the futility of moral justifications.

“In a Grove” is the first story in the book 'Rashōmon and Other Stories.' My copy is a reprint of the second edition of the book first published by Charles E. Tuttle Company in 1952. It contains six pieces, all translated by Takashi Kojima, and with an introduction by Tanizaki’s translator Howard Hibbett.

In the book's preface, Takashi Kojima said that the six stories are selected with the aim of collecting the “finest and most representative writings” of Akutagawa. For a prolific writer such as Akutagawa, a mere representation of his best works in six servings, out of the more than a hundred stories he completed, appears to be non-representative at all. But there can be no doubt that the six pieces – six 'master' pieces – are among his finest. Any collection that contains the first two in this book, “In a Grove” and “Rashōmon,” is a book to be treasured. Though it does not contain his other famous stories (“Hell-Screen” and “The Nose”), the book is a perfect sampler of Akutagawa’s literary output.

In the first story, the characters are consumed by the need to explain or justify their behavior before the High Police Commissioner, to bear witness to something they have “seen.” The reader "acts" as the Commissioner who listens to all the versions of the story. Each version is tailored in such a way that it casts its teller in the role of the underdog or the wronged.

My complete review can be found here: http://booktrek.blogspot.com/2009/07/... ( )

http://bibliotheca.skynetblogs.be/pos... ( )

Basic Reason for Beginning: Well... I think 'Rashomon' is one of those words/pieces of culture you tend to hear about if you learn a little about Japan. Did in my family anyway, but I didn't know it was a book -- my dad had the movie, dubbed in German, at one point I think. I've definitely seen glimpses of a movie version of the first story -- until I spotted this in the secondhand store. So home it went!
Basic Reason for Finishing: They're all short stories; it's a small book; and, well, it's quite interesting to read, though I lack the finer understanding of the culture. It doesn't pose much of a problem.
Texture: All these stories were... bready. I suppose.

Full review here.

Rereadability: Sometime. It's only a small book and I think there's a lot more to be found in these than what I found the first read.
Recommendation: Again, I don't know whom to specifically (people interested in Japanese culture/literature, definitely, but that's a given). But yes I'd be happy to recommend it if anything related ever came up in conversation. ( )

There is much talk of this book in "Ghost Dog - Way of the Samurai". But for me it was largely disappointing - except for the many points of viewed "In A Grove", which I think I'd read before anyway. ( )