Penguin Group Botchan - Book

This book,despite being written over 100 years ago,is still so fresh & crisp that the joy of reading becomes a memorable experience. This was my first experience of reading Natsume Sōseki & I’m already delighted! Botchan is a rock star!!

"Botchan" means Young Master and carries the same mix of affection and condescension as the English term. We never find out the narrator and protagonist's real name, only the moniker his family's loyal maid uses. Like Soseki himself, Botchan is the unfavored son of an old and pedigreed Tokyo family who leaves the capital for a teaching position at a middle (i.e., high) school in a castle town in the boondocks. (Though never named, the town is unmistakably Matsuyama, a Shikoku city known for its castle and hot springs.) Though Botchan describes his youthful self as a hellraiser, he is unprepared for the rural thugs he is expected to teach, some of whom are bigger than he is and all of whom are ruder. Even more problematic are his colleagues at the school, who are almost without exception a bunch of lying schemers. Will Botchan make it through the school year without falling into cynicism and despair? Doubtful, but his humor and Tokyo determination egg him on: "To give up at this point would have been a disgrace....If people were to hear that I allowed this pack of snot-nosed brats to make a fool of me...I would never live it down. I'm not made of the same stuff as those peasants were, of that you can be sure." Sometimes described as "The Catcher in the Rye" of Japan, "Botchan" predates it by half a century yet seems fresher and still modern 112 years years after its publication. It's also very funny--in fact, it reminded me of Kingsley Amis's "Lucky Jim," surely the gold standard of the academy novel. While it suffers from an abrupt and unsatisfying ending, it's worthwhile for anyone interested in Japanese literature, or modern Japan generally.

Written in very plain language and is very accessible. Botchan’s struggle is every man’s struggle.

It certainly isn't the most pleasurable book to read, however, the charism and idiosyncrasy of Botchan is highly entertaining. It made the book interesting and breathed a bit of life into a quite mundane storyline. I liked the pacing of the novel but just for me it seemed to move in no real direction. It finished, for me, with a lack of conclusion or clear logical understanding of what Botchan had been through. I expected more of a character journey but came up short in the end, which was kind of frustrating. Might just be the genre of the novel or what the author was trying to achieve, which might have been nothing. Still a great book!

Charming and enjoyable read. Pretty quick and easy going through it but there are points throughout the book that you could just sit and think on. The naive perspective and light humor of Botchan was fresh and his position was pretty relatable. Planning on looking into other books by Soseki.