In A Grove (藪の中)
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

If you’re going to read only one story in your entire life, by all means don’t make the mistake of letting that story be not this one.

Written by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, who is hailed as the father of the Japanese short story, In A Grove (Yabu No Naka) is far and away one of the best short stories in history. On second thought, it is, in my opinion, the apotheosis of short fiction, a superbly styled story about sex, lies and a high police interrogation.

A good friend suggested several nights ago that I read this (I’m lucky to know the right sort of people who know the right sort of things to recommend.), telling me it was the basis for the film I was asking him then for a copy of and adding that, although the film is already universally renowned as one of the best examples of Asian cinema, the source material remains to be the superior version. The film in question is none other than Akira Kurosawa’s epic, Rashōmon, which took its title and setting from another short story by the inimitable Akutagawa.

I managed to find a copy online shortly after my friend’s recommendation and downloaded it to my phone, on which I began reading the story the following day while queueing for lunch at a fast food restaurant. A few minutes, a glass of Coke Zero, a cup of coleslaw, and a fried chicken thigh consumed to the bone later, I was done with it. But apparently, as I was about to find out a bit later, it was not yet done with me.

Of all the thought-provoking tales I’d ever known in my whole life, it was the one. In A Grove was the one.

12 October 2009 · Comments · Permalink · http://aldr.in/210984061

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