Somersault (novel)

Somersault (宙返り Chūgaeri) is a 1999 novel by Kenzaburō Ōe. It is about two former leaders of a religious cult as they try to establish a new movement, a possible nuclear catastrophe, and religious sects in everyday society.[1] It received inspiration from the Aum Shinrikyo cult and their Tokyo subway sarin attack of 1995. The English translation, by Philip Gabriel,[2] first appeared in 2003.[3] It was Ōe's first novel since he won the 1994 literature Nobel Prize.[4] It was published in the United States by Grove Press.[5] The book was published in the United Kingdom by Atlantic Books.[4]

Reception

Scott Esposito of the Los Angeles Times said that the translation "wasn't much admired by English-speaking reviewers".[3] Christopher Tayler of The Guardian said that the "sprawling" Somersault received "widespread criticism".[1] Publishers Weekly said "Oe [sic] has attempted to create a sprawling masterpiece, but American readers might decide there's more sprawl than masterpiece here."[2] Steven Poole of The Guardian said, "And yet, for all its longueurs, one finishes Somersault [sic] convinced that buried within the sprawling text is a brilliant, much shorter novel. Perhaps even Nobel laureates occasionally need ruthless editing."[4] Eric Hanson of the Star Tribune said the novel "would be an underwhelming and unsatisfying read, no matter the writer. But coming from a novelist of Oe's immense stature, it's beyond disappointing. It's depressingly sad [sic]."[5]

gollark: I mean, you'd have to fit all your prayers into a few minutes if the day was that short.
gollark: And if you're in (the) (Ant)[Aa]rctic(a), you run into similar problems because of the broken daynight cycle.
gollark: And prayers take place at certain times of day, which of course causes problems with no real day/night cycle available.
gollark: For example, you are required to pray facing the Mecca. How do you do this while in orbit of Earth? You need some sort of complex gyroscopic chair to face you in the right direction.
gollark: Islam is one of the less cool religions, because it adapts poorly to space travel.

References
  1. Tayler, Christopher. "The Changeling by Kenzaburo Oe." The Guardian. Friday June 11, 2010. Retrieved on November 9, 2012.
  2. "SOMERSAULT." (978-0-8021-1738-0) Publishers Weekly. Retrieved on November 9, 2012.
  3. Esposito, Scott. "'The Changeling' by Kenzaburo Oe." Los Angeles Times. March 7, 2010. Retrieved on November 9, 2012.
  4. Poole, Steven. "The RS Thomas cult." The Guardian. Friday August 1, 2003. Retrieved on November 9, 2012.
  5. Hanson, Eric. "Review: 'Somersault' by Kenzaburo Oe Archived 2015-01-21 at the Wayback Machine." Star Tribune. April 26, 2003. Retrieved on November 9, 2012.


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