Pathway to Japanese Literature
Discover Japan's stories—across time, across language.
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Where To?Author: Sakaguchi Ango
| Original Title | いずこへ |
|---|---|
| Author | 坂口 安吾 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In a grimy factory district apartment, a disillusioned writer drifts through life as a self-proclaimed outcast, clinging to an ascetic existence free of possessions or attachments. His fragile solitude shatters when a persistent woman invades his space, dragging kettles, bowls, and domesticity into his barren room—symbols of a mundane life he despises. Their turbulent bond becomes a battleground between his yearning for purity and the creeping decay of compromise. As debts mount and manuscripts fail, he spirals into self-destructive escapades, oscillating between fleeting carnal encounters and bitter introspection. A shadowy cast—a promiscuous bar owner, a vengeful ex-husband, a hedonistic cousin—mirror his own fractured identity. Through drunken nights and existential despair, he grapples with nihilism’s allure and the hollow ache of artistic ambition, questioning whether any path leads beyond the tracks of his own futility. The story pulses with raw introspection, exposing the ragged edges of a soul torn between rebellion and surrender, where every choice unravels into deeper isolation. |
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