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"Filled with light, satirical touches." — Donald Keene
A modern classic, Botchan rivals Soseki's famous I Am a Cat in popularity in Japan. This is the funniest of Soseki's novels, a penetrating portrait of a young man's quest to survive the suffocating hypocrisy of everyone around him while remaining true to his beliefs.
Reckless but unfailingly honest, Botchan is the youngest son in a middle-class Tokyo family. Following his graduation from college, he takes a job as a math teacher on the island of Shikoku, far from the city. Thrust into this alien small-town environment, Botchan encounters nothing but trouble from his students and fellow teachers. Among his tormentors are the pompous, two-faced vice-principal; his fawning sidekick—the art teacher; the spineless principal; and a pack of brawny, prankster students — all of whom seem out to get him. Mayhem ensues, but in the end Botchan prevails through honesty and dogged determination.
Recommended for readers ages 14 and up due to explicit language
A modern classic, Botchan rivals Soseki's famous I Am a Cat in popularity in Japan. This is the funniest of Soseki's novels, a penetrating portrait of a young man's quest to survive the suffocating hypocrisy of everyone around him while remaining true to his beliefs.
Reckless but unfailingly honest, Botchan is the youngest son in a middle-class Tokyo family. Following his graduation from college, he takes a job as a math teacher on the island of Shikoku, far from the city. Thrust into this alien small-town environment, Botchan encounters nothing but trouble from his students and fellow teachers. Among his tormentors are the pompous, two-faced vice-principal; his fawning sidekick—the art teacher; the spineless principal; and a pack of brawny, prankster students — all of whom seem out to get him. Mayhem ensues, but in the end Botchan prevails through honesty and dogged determination.
Recommended for readers ages 14 and up due to explicit language
Price: $14.99
Pages: 192
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Imprint: Tuttle Publishing
Series: Tuttle Japanese Classics in Manga
Publication Date:
17 September 2024
Trim Size: 8.00 X 5.50 in
ISBN: 9781462925094
Format: eBook
"Filled with light, satirical touches." — Donald Keene
"Botchan is required reading at school in Japan and you can imagine students identifying with the central character's contempt for the fools around him in much the same way those in the West identify with the characters in The Catcher in the Rye and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn — both of which Botchan has been compared to." —The Japan Times
"Soseki Natsume is a great writer to have in anyone's collection. At his best, his prose is lush and rife with human observation and insight. He is capable of genuine pathos as seen in his novels such as Kokoro and I Am a Cat, but he is also capable of great humor and satire, as in the case of both Cat and Botchan." —Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"Botchan is required reading at school in Japan and you can imagine students identifying with the central character's contempt for the fools around him in much the same way those in the West identify with the characters in The Catcher in the Rye and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn — both of which Botchan has been compared to." —The Japan Times
"Soseki Natsume is a great writer to have in anyone's collection. At his best, his prose is lush and rife with human observation and insight. He is capable of genuine pathos as seen in his novels such as Kokoro and I Am a Cat, but he is also capable of great humor and satire, as in the case of both Cat and Botchan." —Seattle Post-Intelligencer