Welcome to J-Sei’s Virtual Book Club!
Our next book that we’ll be reading together is LAMENT IN THE NIGHT by Nagahara Shoson (tr. Andrew Leong).
ENGAGING IN BOOK CLUB
READING – We’ll go through the book together week by week, about 60+ pages per week. Of course you are welcome to read ahead, or at whatever pace you feel comfortable with! See the full Book Club – Suggested Reading Schedule below.
REFLECTING – Every Friday for 6 weeks, I will add a post on the J-Sei website with a summary and discussion points for that week’s reading. Click on READ MORE for the full post and comment section. You’re free to respond to my comments and also submit your own observations, opinions, and questions in the Comment area of the Post.
CHAT – For an online chat with fellow book club participants, connect to DISCORD. To connect to DISCORD, click on the CONNECT button in the DISCORD box below. If it’s your first time, you will need to create an account. Once you are in the JSei Community, find the Book Club Channel on the left column. You can read the chat, add your own comments and reflections. If the group would like to have an online video chat, that can be arranged too.
MEET THE AUTHOR – On Wednesday, January 13, translator and scholar Andrew Way Leong will join us for a live Zoom conversation to provide background information on the author and his translation. Then, after we’ve completed the book in February, Prof. Leong will meet with us again for a live virtual book talk and Q&A on Zoom. RSVP to become a Book Club member and receive the Zoom links.
JOIN BOOK CLUB – For those interested in participating, send inquiry here.
Scroll down to see the Book Club Reading schedule and description of the featured book and author.
– Kathy Hashimoto, moderator
BOOK CLUB – Suggested Reading Schedule
Fri., Jan. 15: Intro (pp 9-13), Lament in the Night (pp 21-95)
Fri., Jan. 22: The Tale of Osato, Pt I, Ch 1-2 (pp 100-167)
Fri., Jan. 29: Osato, Pt I, Ch 3-end of Pt 1 (pp 168-248)
Fri., Feb. 5: Osato, Pt. II, #81-115 (pp 249-313)
Fri., Feb. 12: Osato, Pt II, #116-END (pp 313-369)
Fri., Feb.19: Translator’s Afterword (pp 387-419)
Weekly Reading Guides and Prompts
Join the J-Sei Book Club to participate in the conversation – read more of the summary and prompts, leave comments, and check back again to hear from others.
Protected: Week 6: Lament in the Night
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Protected: Week 5: Lament in the Night
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Protected: Week 4: Lament in the Night
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Protected: Week 3: Lament in the Night
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Protected: Week 2: Lament in the Night
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Protected: Week 1: Lament in the Night
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J-Sei’s Virtual Book Club: Lament in the Night
Meet Translator Andrew Way Leong On Wednesday, January 13, at 4:00pm, Professor Andrew Way Leong, translator of Lament in the Night, will visit with us live on Zoom to launch this season's Book Club. Prof. Leong will introduce Nagahara's work and describe how he came...
Lament in the Night is a heartrending gift from the past… Little Tokyo in the 1920s—its bars, gambling, and social exchanges in an era of Prohibition—comes vividly to life in these stories, revealing the real and psychic underbelly of daily lives that have been erased and forgotten. Andrew Leong’s patient and careful translation makes a lost world known to us again.
— Karen Tei Yamashita, author of I-Hotel and
Sansei and Sensibility
Nagahara Shōson was the pen name of Nagahara Hideaki, who was born in 1901 in a small village in the northeastern corner of Hiroshima Prefecture. In 1918, he emigrated to the United States at age 17. In 1920, Nagahara resided in a boarding house in Los Angeles and listed his occupation as “railroad worker,” but he also published several novels, stories, and plays in the Los Angeles area, though not all his works have survived. Nagahara may have returned to Japan in late 1927 or early 1928. The date and location of his death are currently unknown.
Andrew Way Leong is Assistant Professor of English at U.C. Berkeley, where he received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature. Prior to joining the Berkeley faculty, Prof. Leong was an assistant professor at Northwestern University. In addition to translating Lament in the Night, which won the 2014 Outstanding Book Award—Creative Writing, Assoc. of Asian American Studies, he is presently completing a book manuscript entitled A Queer, Queer Race: Origins for Japanese/American Literature.
Photo: Yanina Gotsulsky