Bibliograph

Patient X, the case-book of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, David Peace

Type

Label

Patient X, the case-book of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, David Peace

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages [303-308])

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

no index present

Literary Form

fiction

Main title

Patient X

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1013525517

Responsibility statement

David Peace

Sub title

the case-book of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Summary

Haunting and evocative, brutal and surreal, these twelve connected tales evoke the life of the Japanese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927), whose short story "In the Grove" served as an inspiration for Akira Kurosawa's famous film Rashōmon, and whose narrative use of multiple perspectives and different versions of a single event influenced generations of storytellers. Writing out of his own obsession with Akutagawa, David Peace delves into the known facts and events of the writer's life and inner world--birth to a mother who was mentally ill and a father who died shortly thereafter; his own battles with mental illness; his complicated reaction to the beginnings of modernization and Westernization of Japan; his short but prolific writing career; his suicide at the age of thirty-five--and creates a stunningly atmospheric and deeply moving fiction that tells its own story of a singularly brilliant mind

Table Of Contents

After the thread, before the thread -- Hell screens -- Repetition -- Jack the Ripper's bedroom -- A twice-told tale -- The yellow Christ -- After the war, before the war -- The exorcists -- After the disaster, before the disaster -- "Saint Kappa" -- The spectres of Christ -- After the fact, before the fact -- Bare bones

Classification