Pathway to Japanese Literature
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Heredity of TasteAuthor: Natsume Soseki
| Original Title | 趣味の遺伝 |
|---|---|
| Author | 夏目 漱石 |
| Genre | Detective & Mystery |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | Amidst divine madness unleashing carnage upon Manchurian battlefields, a scholar’s mundane errand collides with history’s echoes. At Tokyo’s Shinbashi Station, crowds roar “Banzai!” for returning soldiers—a chorus the narrator cannot join, his throat choked by visions of men reduced to dog food. Among the sun-leathered troops strides a sergeant uncannily mirroring his dead friend Kou, trailed by an aged mother clinging to her son like a relic. Days later, a haunting beauty materializes at Kou’s grave, her heliotrope scent and white chrysanthemums threading mystery into mourning. As the scholar unravels diaries and ancestral secrets, war’s alchemy—transforming flesh into legend—intersects with hereditary ghosts: a Kishu domain feud, star-crossed lovers, and karmic patterns etched across generations. Between trenches swallowing soldiers and temple gardens cradling unresolved longing, Sōseki weaves a tapestry where personal grief becomes a portal to collective memory, and every “Banzai” echoes as both battle cry and elegy. |
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