![]() ![]() Every man is haunted by ghosts-though most of us (poets excepted) are unwilling to confess the acquaintance.” “Whoever pretends not to believe in ghosts of any sort, lies to his own heart. ![]() He was born in Greece, raised in Ireland, abandoned by every parental figure he ever had, and then moved quite literally all over the world-Cincinnati, New Orleans, the French Indies, and finally Japan, where he eventually married a native, became a naturalized citizen, and started collecting the country’s myths and legends, putting them into English and offering the Western world a glimpse of Japanese culture for the first time. The book starts with a short biography of Hearn (1850-1904), which was fascinating, and quite eye-opening in order to understand what drew him to these dark tales. I also usually review short story collections by breaking them down and rating each story on its own, but I found that I was unable to do it in this case-there are thirty-four of them, and save for a few exceptions, they were just a little too bite-sized, and felt more like sketches or vignettes than fleshed out stories to me. I’m leaving for my first ever Japan trip in three weeks and spooky season is upon us, so this new edition of Hearn’s retellings of Japanese folk stories immediately jumped out to me, but it took me longer to get through than I anticipated. ![]()
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