The Honorable Picnic: A 1920s Novel About Japan

by Thomas Raucat

Book Overview

Written in 1924, this has been called the best novel ever written abo Penned in 1924, this has been called the best novel ever written about Japan, and its charm remains undiminished. The French author, a pilot during World War I, was sent to Japan as a flying instructor after the war, and this book is a fictionalised account with line drawings of the year he spent

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0710312008
• ISBN13: 9780710312006
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Insights into inter-war Japanese society

The novel begins as a parody but achieves objectivity by equally ridiculing all of its (strong) central characters. The author was a French-speaking Swiss diplomat living in Tokyo in the 1920s at a seminal time both politically and socially. He depicts a society caught between modernity and tradition, an apparently complex, inter-related society in which most of the characters in fact merely pursue their own selfish ambitions, oblivious of the effect on others. The novel proceeds through a series of chapters, each depicting events from the perspective of a different character - the majority of them female. The ending is tragic and achieves a high degree of realism, doubtless due to its being based in part upon the author's own personal experiences. It is such a pity that the novel is (presently) no longer in print.