Child of Fortune

By conventional Japanese standards, Koko Mizuno is an abysmal failure as woman, wife, and mother—and she couldn't care less. She has succeeded in remaining true to herself in a stubborn struggle against powerful conformist pressures. Yet her resistance is largely passive. Self-absorbed, indecisive, she makes her own uncharted way through life, letting her husband, lovers, even her only daughter, gradually slip away. Signs that she is pregnant after a casual affair rouse her to make decisions. Then a deeply ironic turn of events thrusts her into the cold light of a reluctant self-knowledge. Through layer upon layer of dreams, memories, defenses, and delusions, she emerges finally to take a conscious step toward the independence she cannot yet define, certain only that she herself has changed. In Child of Fortune, Yuko Tsushima has brought to life a woman whose psychological complexity reflects the meeting of Japanese fiction and women's changing consciousness. The depths of inner conflict are illuminated here by radiant imagery, wry humor, and a sharp clarity of vision.While drawing on the "I-novel" tradition that has dominated modern Japanese literature, the author integrates the autobiographical elements into a fully realized fictional work of penetrating social insight.The novel received the 1978 Women's Literature Prize, one of many awards that have spotlighted Yuko Tsushima as a writer of exceptional gifts.