Quite a Trade

Saint Oe

My buddy Morgan called me up the other day, and we talking about it all, when he told me that he'd finished the book I gave him. "A Personal Matter" by Kenzaburo Oe.

Many of my readers are already aware of this, but I'm just going to explicitly state this right now. I think Kenzaburo Oe is the greatest modern writer in the world. "A Personal Matter" is the best novel I've ever read. Morgan was pretty impressed with it too.

We got talking about writing. He's a writer as well, so we talked about that kind of stuff. At some point in the conversation he mentioned reading "The Fountainhead," and I started making fun of him.

Again, many of my readers know this. But I'm a liberal, from a liberal world, from a liberal family, with a liberal sensibility. I have been guilty at times, I admit, of letting my politics sway my intellectual abilities, and devastate my typically charming social skills. I still can't see a picture of Ronald Reagan without subsequently punching every senior citizen in the vicinity.

So Morgan tells me that he's going to get me a copy of "The Fountainhead" for my birthday (AUGUST 28 WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO GET ME???). We're going to trade..."The Fountainhead" for Oe's "Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness."

Quite a trade.

Is it true she was just a hateful, misanthropic monster? or did she have good qualities as well? I can't wait to be forced to find out!