Eclipse - Hirano Keiichiro

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Eclipse

by
Hirano Keiichiro

general information | our review | links | about the author

Title:	Eclipse
Author:	Hirano Keiichiro
Genre:	Novel
Written:	1998 (Eng. 2024)
Length:	136 pages
Original in:	Japanese
Availability:	Eclipse - US
	Eclipse - UK
	Eclipse - Canada
	L'éclipse - France

	from: Bookshop.org (US)

Japanese title: 日蝕
Translated by Brent de Chene and Charles De Wolf
With an Introduction by Brent de Chene
Akutagawa Prize, 1998 (II)

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Our Assessment:

B+ : strong, and well done

See our review for fuller assessment.

The complete review's Review:

       In Eclipse a pastor at a provincial parish recounts events from decades earlier, in 1482, when the young Dominican friar on the academic track had just completed his studies. Among Nicolas' student-possessions was a manuscript with many pages missing; eventually figuring out that it was Marsilio Ficino's translation of the Corpus Hermeticum, he was eager to find a complete edition. None was to be found in Paris, but someone told him that he might have better luck in Lyon, and, eager to find this and similar texts, he makes his way there -- postponing taking up (and possibly forsaking) the professorial position waiting for him.
       As a student, Nicolas was: "regarded as a quaint and eccentric Thomist", but he is also intrigued by other thinkers, such as Duns Scotus and Nicholas of Cusa, and, regarding pagan philosophies, thought it possible: "to subordinate and absorb them within the body of theology, for, in fact, they contain much that is true". When in Lyon he hears of someone who has been pursuing alchemy in a nearby village and makes his way there; it is here that most of the story is set.
       The would-be alchemist is Pierre Dufay, a man obsessed with finding the philosopher's stone:

Pierre repeatedly and adamantly pointed to the necessity of creating the lapis philosophicus, while criticizing Saint Thomas for making no mention thereof. Finding the stone was Pierre's only goal

Among the others in the village is Jacques Michaëlis -- a fellow Dominican as well as an inquisitor, in this time when the Inquisition was still very active --, and:

According to him, the contemporary Inquisition had to deal not only with doctrinal interpretation, but also with those individuals who enter into carnal relations with the devil and hold blasphemous ceremonies.

       And, eventually Jacques and the villagers target someone as a witch, and there is a trial and horrific execution; Pierre Dufay is also denounced -- and Jacques gives Nicolas the helpful hint and nudge that, given his association with Dufay, some of the villagers might also denounce him and that he should best be getting on his way .....
       Nicolas is intrigued by Dufay -- and obviously drawn to his very impressive library, which includes a copy of the Corpus Hermeticum. Dufay tolerates Nicolas, though he is not particularly welcoming. Nicolas is impressed by Dufay's devotion to the task he has set himself -- "something similar to the ritualistic strictness and reverence with which, in celebrating the Mass, we receive the Host" -- and visits and shadows him, which also leads Nicolas to a striking discovery (which also then proves to be its own, and Dufay's, undoing).
       The creepy village is struck by some sort of plague, the villagers suffering intermittent fevers, and: "The calamity did its mischief to the spirit as well as the body"; unsurprisingly, they search for the cause in the supernatural and find enough to latch onto, with terrible results. It all comes to a head with the solar eclipse of the title .....
       Eclipse is, in part, a philosophical novel, as Nicolas tackles a variety of questions that also go beyond the theological (though they are mostly grounded in the theological debates of the times). As striking is Hirano's evocative prose, shifting between precise philosophical debate and a vivid naturalism that, at its height, is remarkably intensely rendered. There are crescendi of description that manage to build to astonishing -- and disturbing -- heights, with Nicolas' controlled voice particularly effective in presenting what otherwise might seem unnatural (as well as the base human behavior he encounters).
       It shouldn't need saying -- there's no reason for content to have anything to do with an author's (national) background -- but presumably for many readers it will be jarring how not-Japanese this story is -- despite being an Akutagawa Prize-winning and bestselling-in-Japan novel, at that. There is no mention of or allusion to Japan, and the story is entirely rooted in Europe and in Christian theology; beyond that, it is certainly 'universal' in many of its themes and details, but so much of contemporary fiction comes laden with the expectations that externalities -- an author's identity and nationality -- lead to very specific expectations. Those will not be met here, however. (Beyond that, it's also quite remarkable how young the author was at the time.)
       (Note also that Brent de Chene's otherwise useful Introduction spells out quite clearly what happens in the novel which can indeed spoil some of the novel's effect; readers are (strongly) advised to jump ahead to the novel proper and return to the Introduction when they're done.)
       Eclipse is an unusual and quite remarkable piece of writing -- effectively translated by Brent de Chene and Charles De Wolf -- and it's good to see this finally available in English; one hopes what de Chene calls its "fraternal twin", 一月物語 (Ichigetsu Monogatari; the Shinchosha edition publishes them together in one volume) -- will follow soon.

- M.A.Orthofer, 15 October 2024

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Links:

Eclipse:

Columbia University Press publicity page
Shinchosha publicity page
Éditions Picquier publicity page

Reviews:

Hirano Keiichirō:

Official site

Other books by Hirano Keiichirō under review:

Other books of interest under review:

See Index of Japanese literature
Index of Akutagawa Prize-winning works under review

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About the Author:

Japanese author Hirano Keiichirō (平野啓一郎) was born in 1975.

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