This novel is one of the most famous of female author Fumiko Hayashi's works. The present translation was done by Lane Dunlop, well-known for his earlier translations of works by writers such as Yasunari Kawabata and Kafu Nagai. It is part of the Japanese Literature Publishing Project, sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and carries the enthusiastic endorsement of American academics specializing in Japanese women's literature (see the back cover). It will be of special interest to the reader drawn to women's writings of the immediate postwar period.
Though Dunlop states in the preface that the novel is not directly autobiographical, the "common reader" will see links between the difficult life of Hayashi and the emotional and physical ups and downs of Yukiko, the heroine of this novel.
Hayashi had a troubled family background and a poor and unsettled childhood, yet she claimed to have happy memories of her childhood. This indomitable spirit, looking back with nostalgia and forward with hope, no matter how harsh or sordid the present situation, characterizes Yukiko. She, like Hayashi, loved and lost a number of mostly feckless and unworthy men. Her happiest time was when she worked in French Indochina for the Japanese wartime government.