This... novel by one of Japan's antiestablishment writers depicts the horrors of war during the final days of World War II... The formal style evokes an epic quality that transcends this one small battle...The book is superbly translated and introduced by Keene, a preeminent scholar and professor who has devoted his life to Japan. Library Journal [This] 1998 novel about ... Read morethe defense of a small South Pacific island against American invasion-its Japanese author's first in English translation-displays a riveting economy and intensity... depicted in unflinchingly graphic detail... this excellent little tale [is] very much something of an Asian Red Badge of Courage. Kirkus Reviews This is a novel that is intellectually engaging. Persimmon The Breaking Jewel is heart-rending and tactfully moving. It is also remarkable that Oda (and Keene's translation) proved to be as powerful as a novella. Historical Novels Review Oda, a prominent and controversial novelist known for his outspoken antiestablishment and antiwar sentiments, gradually and subtly develops a powerful indictment against World War II... The novel openly questions whethergyokusai (literallythe breaking jewel) is truly an act of patriotism or one of futile self-defeat. Translation Review Oda compresses a lot of literary razzle-dazzle in these 116 pages... On one level we have the narrative of a good fighting story and on another level, a novel of race and class... [that] works on other levels of irony and myth. It is really an impressive job...The Breaking Jewel, indeed, fits our present times.
William Witherup Pacific Reader With Donald Keene, our most important scholar of Japanese literature, we are guaranteed an accurate and graceful rendering into English as well as a significant novel, the first by Makoto Oda to be translated. Oda has provided a dramatic and compelling story about the Pacific War from the other side.
Sidney DeVere Brown World Literature Today Show Less