Games of Contemporaries. Notes of a Pinch Runner

Published in 1979, "Games of Contemporaries" is one of the most complex and profound works of Kenzaburo Oe. The novel is written in the form of six letters that the main character sends to his twin sister. In them, the author, through his character, reflects on the past, present, and future of his native country and attempts to create a new diverse model of the organization of Japanese society, in which the unifying cult of the emperor is replaced by a triumvirate of "village-state-microcosm".

The novel "Notes of a Pinch Runner" is dedicated to themes familiar to Oe, such as self-determination and the insecurity of Japanese youth living in fear of the dangers of the nuclear age. In baseball (a game that has become something greater than just a game for the post-war Japanese generation), a pinch runner is a player who can save a losing team with a swift run. In the novel, this pinch runner becomes a character known only as Father Mori. The man dedicates his life to fighting a mysterious Patron, a ruthless manipulator who deceives two youth groups into creating a "dirty" nuclear bomb capable of wiping Tokyo off the face of the earth in an instant.