Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show
Page 32
I want to thank my wife, Virginia Wiley, for her belief in me and her willingness to give me honest appraisals of my work at every turn, for more than three decades now. I also want to thank my agent, Gail Hochman, for her unending support of this novel, her willingness to read and reread too many drafts to count, and her tenacity on my behalf. Thanks, also, to my friends, Charles and Keiko DeWolf, Tatsuji and Mineko Suzuki, Fumi Yoshimura, and Ayako Hara, for their help and kindness during my many sojourns to Japan.
Readers of this book will find references and small quotes from two films by Akira Kurosawa: Shichinen no Samurai (The Seven Samurai) and Ikiru (To Live); as well as from the eleventh-century novel, Genji Monogatari (Tale of Genji) and from the poetry of Bashó. Shakespeare and Ralph Waldo Emerson also peek through the curtains once in a while. In addition, the book is intended as a prequel to my 1986 novel, Soldiers in Hiding, which is referenced, in sly ways, here and there throughout the work.
A few historical figures appear in the book, and speak words that I put in their mouths—Commodore Perry, Lord Abe, Lord Okubo, Lord Tokugawa, Keiki—but their acts and those of the characters I made up are entirely fictional, so if they’re turning in their graves over what I made them say, I apologize.
Excerpts from the novel appeared, in altered form, in the Kyoto Review, and the “Whitman Sampler” chapter was published in a beautiful fine arts edition by the Perishable Press.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2007 Richard Wiley
ISBN: 978-1-4976-5928-5
A Dzanc Books rEprint Series Selection
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