2020 Book Reviews

4

Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai

Osamu by Osami Dazai

This is a collection of four retellings of Japanese fairy tales. I found them all entertaining and felt that Dazai did a good job at highlighting the nature of each story and also giving his own commentaries on them. This style of storytelling helps the reader to feel as though the author is conversing with them directly and I enjoy it sometimes.

Many Japanese people will perhaps already be familiar with these stories though I'd still recommend them to anyone as these are Dazai's retellings from his own perspective. He also interjects humour into the stories and I enjoyed his approach to dialogue that fleshes out each character well, for example, the sarcastic nature of the tortoise in the story of Urashima-san is brilliantly realised through his snide remarks throughout the story.