The title piece in this collection reveals its importance to Ôe’s identity as a writer. Prize Stock, winner of the Akutagawa Prize, is about the relationship between a Japanese flier and captured black American flier during World War II. Aghwee the Sky Monster is about a young man’s first job. The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away is an unsparing parody of Yukio Mishima’s terrorism and suicide.
