Pico Iyer Reflects on a Quarter-Century of Life in Japan

AUTUMN LIGHT

Season of Fire and Farewells

By Pico Iyer

The attraction of Anglo-American writers to Japan as the source of an alternate way of being is a long story, going back to the 19th century (Lafcadio Hearn), through that wonderful set of mid-20th-century translators and critics (Donald Keene, Donald Richie, Edward Seidensticker, Ivan Morris), down to a recent sowing-of-wild-oats memoir by Ian Buruma. Pico Iyer — globe-trotting journalist, memoirist and travel writer extraordinaire — first became enamored with Japan when he was 26. What holds everything together, besides Iyer’s elegantly smooth prose style and gift for detailed observation, is a circling around the theme of autumn in Japan and this autumnal period in his life.

Source: www.nytimes.com