SOURCE: Wilson, Michiko N. “A Narrative of Simultaneity: The Football Game of the First Year of Manen.” In The Marginal World of Oe Kenzaburo: A Study in Themes and Techniques, pp. 48-60. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1986.

In the following essay, Wilson argues that the narrative in The Football Game of the First Year of Manen is constructed as “an attempt to look simultaneously at the linear movement of historical events.”

The 1967 award-winning novel, The Football Game of the First Year of Manen (Manengannen no futtobōru, hereafter Manen), tells of the adventures of two brothers who return to their native village in the valley on Shikoku, in search of their roots and to start a new life. As this story, set in 1960, moves toward the future, there is another story that moves back into the past, the tale of the two brothers' great-grandfather and his...