Rouse Up, O Young Men of the New Age A Novel Hardcover - 2002

From the publisher

Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age! is a virtuoso novel hailed as "a dark jewel" (The Village Voice) and "a dazzlingly unconventional fiction . . . capable of frequently reducing the reader to helpless (albeit grateful) tears" (Kirkus Reviews). Wise and illuminating, it is a masterpiece from one of the world's finest writers.

K is a famous writer living in Tokyo with his wife and three children, one of whom is mentally disabled. K's wife confronts him with the information that this child, Eeyore, has been doing disturbing things -- behaving aggressively, asserting that he's dead, even brandishing a knife at his mother -- and K, given to retreating from reality into abstraction, looks for answers in his lifelong love of William Blake's poetry. As K struggles to understand his family and assess his responsibilities within it, he must also reevaluate himself -- his relationship with his own father, the political stances he has taken, the duty of artists and writers in society. A remarkable portrait of the inexpressible bond between this father and his damaged son, Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age! is the work of an unparalleled writer at his sparkling best.