Anti-conformism through conformity
That other wiki has a big list on Japanese novels and it gives a little description at the end of each title dropped. There's also the few light novels that managed to get translated. Haven't really read enough to give good recommendations though. Sorry. Btw if you just wanna read them to get a feel for the culture I recommend reading up on old folk tales. Some of the values are a little outdated for modern Japanese but they were isolated until fairly recently. you can tell a lot about a culture's values from their stories and morals. Plus they're short ;)
~Hey Yew! Don't tell me there's no hope at aaaaallllllll!~
Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a very strange story, but I learnt a lot about Japanese society from it because it is heavily based on Japanese culture (e.g. superstitions, class, political culture) and modern imperial history.
The History of Ethiopia by Saheed A. Adejumobi is written from an Ethiopian American perspective. It is very comprehensive non-fiction and sometimes is quite personal in expressing Adejumobi's perspectives on Ethiopia.
These are quite long texts, however.
edited 30th Nov '14 1:56:56 AM by editerguy
Related to my previous post, i'm looking for Japanese novels—written by Japanese authors, taking place in japan—as a form of cultural research. My MC is Japanese and I feel that the novels will give me a better understanding of Japan than wikipedia.
On a related note, i'm also looking for Chinese, Indian/sikh, Indian/muslim, and Ethiopian literature. I have a multicultural cast in desperate need of fleshing out and accuracy.
Anything helps! Even if it's just a tidbit, please comment!!!!!