Shame in the Blood

A young man struggling under his cursed family history marks Japanese author Miura's first work translated into English, an intricately layered if claustrophobic collection of six stories from 1960. Five of the six stories are set in postwar Japan and treat in a chronological jumble a university student narrator's courtship with and marriage to a young Tokyo waitress and his decision not to have children because of the fate of his siblings: the narrator's two older brothers ran off, two sisters committed suicide and several of them were visually impaired, leaving him, the youngest, feeling ashamed and sinful. He marries the cheerful, hardworking waitress Shino, but won't find a job, and despite the money Shino brings in, they descend into penury. Upon the death of his father, the narrator rescinds his decision not to have children, and with Shino pregnant, they return to his family's home in Honshu, hoping for a “fresh start.” The sixth story involves different characters but similarly treats a husband's hope to “start fresh” after he learns his wife was raped before marrying him. The five connected stories, despite their erratic time lines, present an intriguing and kaleidoscopic view of a life. (Dec.)