View source for Beasts Head for Home

{{short description|1957 novel by Kōbō Abe}}
{{Infobox book
| italic title      = <!--(see above)-->
| name              = Beasts Head for Home
| image             = File:Cover of the first Japanese edition of Kemono tachi wa kokyou wo mezasu (Beasts Head for Home, 1957).jpg
| image_size        = 
| border            = 
| alt               = 
| caption           = Cover of the first Japanese edition
| author            = [[Kōbō Abe]]
| title_orig        = けものたちは故郷をめざす<br>Kemono tachi wa kokyou wo mezasu
| orig_lang_code    = 
| title_working     = 
| translator        = Richard F. Calichman
| illustrator       = 
| cover_artist      = 
| country           = [[Japan]]
| language          = [[Japanese language|Japanese]]
| series            = 
| release_number    = 
| subject           = 
| genre             = Fiction & Literature
| set_in            = 
| publisher         = [[Columbia University Press]]
| publisher2        = 
| pub_date          = 1957
| english_pub_date  = 2017
| published         = 
| media_type        = Print
| pages             = 224 [US ed.]
| awards            = 
| isbn              = 9780231177047
| isbn_note         = 
| oclc              = 969199237
| dewey             = 895.63/5
| congress          = PL845.B4 K413 2017

| notes             = 
| exclude_cover     = 
| website           = ''[https://cup.columbia.edu/book/beasts-head-for-home/9780231177054 Beasts Head for Home]'' at CUP
}}

'''''Beasts Head for Home''''' (けものたちは故郷をめざす, ''Kemono tachi wa kokyou wo mezasu'', 1957) is an early autobiographical [[novel]] by Japanese writer [[Kōbō Abe]]. It was translated into English, with an introduction, by Richard F. Calichman for [[Columbia University Press]] in 2017 as part of the Weatherhead Books on Asia series.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kōbō |first=Abe |url=https://cup.columbia.edu/book/beasts-head-for-home/9780231177054 |title=Beasts Head for Home |date=May 2017 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-54466-5 |translator-last=Calichman |translator-first=Richard F.}}</ref>

The books is divided into four chapters: "The Rusted Tracks," "The Flag," "The Trap," and "Doors."

== Background ==
After the end of the [[Second World War]] in 1946, Abe decided to return to Japan from [[Mukden]] in [[Manchuria]] after his business went [[bankrupt]]. When evidence of [[cholera]] was found on board the ship home, it was barred from port and  [[quarantine]]d for ten days. Being so close to home, yet unable to disembark, many of the passengers began to exhibit signs of insanity in much the same way as the main character does at the end of the novel. It was this experience, at least in part, that served as the inspiration for ''Beasts''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abe |first=Kōbō |title=Four Stories |publisher=Shōwa 48 |year=1973 |location=Tokyo |pages=130 |translator-last=Horvath |translator-first=Andrew}}</ref>

== Plot ==
{{More plot|date=May 2023}}
The story concerns a Japanese adolescent named Kiku Kyuzo, an orphan living in [[Manchukuo|Manchuria]] at the end of the [[Japanese invasion of Manchuria|Japanese occupation]] in 1945, who attempts to make his way back to his ancestral homeland, a country he has never known. Soviet forces have arrived in Manchuria, and most of the Japanese civilians living there have already fled, but Kyuzo stays behind to care for his ailing mother. After her death, Kyuzo becomes the charge of two Soviet soldiers, who treat him well but will not allow him to leave. At the onset of the [[Chinese Civil War]], the [[Red Army]] withdraws, and Kyuzo is finally able to begin the long journey south that he hopes will lead to his [[repatriation]] in Japan.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/masterworksofasi0000unse_a6b5/page/458/mode/2up?q=beasts |title=Masterworks of Asian Literature in Comparative Perspective: A Guide for Teaching |publisher=M.E. Sharpe, Inc. |year=1994 |isbn=1563242575 |editor-last=Miller |editor-first=Barbara Stoler |location=Armonk, NY & London |pages=459–61}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kobo-abe/beasts-head-for-home/ |title=BEASTS HEAD FOR HOME {{!}} Kirkus Reviews |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Cha: An Asian Literary Journal - Kobo Abe's Beasts Head for Home and the Question of Home |url=https://www.asiancha.com/content/view/2764/621/ |access-date=2023-05-29 |website=www.asiancha.com}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Gordon |first=Peter |date=2017-07-31 |title="Beasts Head for Home" by Abe Kobo |url=https://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/beasts-head-for-home-by-abe-kobo/ |access-date=2023-05-29 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Kobo Abe's Beasts Head for Home. |url=https://www.memphisflyer.com/kobo-abes-beasts-head-for-home |website=MemphisFlyer}}</ref>

== Reception ==
''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' describes the novel as "a memorable portrait of statelessness, exile, and wandering."<ref name=":0" /> In the ''[[Asian Review of Books]]'', Peter Gordon writes "''Beasts Head for Home'' is as riveting and as unforgiving as the frigid Civil War wilderness in which it is set," praises Calichman's translation, but finds his introduction to be "overly complex for the lay reader."<ref name=":1" /> ''[[Memphis Flyer|The Memphis Flyer]]'' finds Beasts to be a "good novel," but "a preparation for the greater novels to come."<ref name=":2" />

== References ==
<references />
{{Kōbō Abe}}

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