I read Osamu Tsukasa's "Ōe the youth of the 60s". The author is known as the designer of Kenzaburo Oe's books. He writes about his memories of the 60s and also the novels by Kenzaburo Oe which he had read well (mainly "Cry" and "Bitten by the Hippopotamus"). And also, describes the Asama-Sanso incident he had watched. His fresh and plain style is impressive and shows true 'the youth of the 60s' and the people's figure who believed their ideas strictly and threw themselves into a revolution clearly. I have not read the Asama-Sanso incident well so I've got a lot from this book.
I had graduated from a university but got no jobs, so I had to spend half a year as a neet. During that period, I had enough of my free time so I had gone to a library and read Kenzaburo Oe's books. Of course, I was just a 20 years old guy so could never understand his novels, but I can remember that I was knocked by his early and young period's fresh novel taste. Oe was a very talented sensitive journalist for me in my young days. He had a huge imagination and could find problems in our age, and he also writes them as novels. He was that person for me.
When he released "Selected short novels" in Iwanami Bunko, I bought that thick paperback and read it completely once. I was attracted by his recent mature novels and thought he shouldn't be ignored. Oe is one of the greatest authors in the world who always progresses forward. He keeps on growing up. Now I'm thinking of re-reading him. I want to read his novels as I listen to Jazz. In a way, Oe's novels are, for me, very vivid protest songs such as Number Girl's and Blankey Jet City's songs which are full of huge delusion.
Ah, it is still vivid that the days I was a neet. I read Oe and Kenji Nakagami. At that time, hikikomori was not a popular word as now. In those days, I had depressed because I couldn't get any good jobs as a freshman. I started drinking alcohol and said that "my life is over". That was just a 'blue period' for me. Everything I did went wrong and I got angered about my naiveness. I tried to be cool very hardly. Now I don't think that. I can be myself now. I remember the days I had spent doing Twitter and got drunk. I had nothing else to do, but still, I feel shameful about this.
