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Bird is a frustrated 27-year-old intellectual who feels trapped by his marriage and dreams of escaping his mundane life in post-war Japan for an adventure in . When his wife gives birth to a severely disabled child, Bird's initial impulse is to run away or even hope for the infant's death so he can maintain his freedom. The novel captures his spiraling descent into drinking and sexual escapades before he eventually decides to stop fleeing and accept the burden of parenthood. Where to Find the Book & Study Materials a personal matter kenzaburo oe pdf
Read it on a rainy afternoon. Read it in a chair. Read it knowing that the author chose life for his own child, and then had the courage to write a novel about choosing death. [Current Date] Prepared by: Research Division Bird is
A Personal Matter is a semi-autobiographical novel rooted in the birth of Oe's own son, , who was born in 1963 with a brain hernia. Where to Find the Book & Study Materials
: The text is "saturated with animal references"—estimated at over 150—which ground the characters' psychological states in a raw, biological reality. Societal Context