BF. William Empson

13. ‘Life in the Far East’. Review of Daughter of Han, by Ida Pruitt; and Japanese Village, by John Embree. New Statesman and Nation 31 (June 1946): 477.

Empson finds that the works under review give a better account of ‘a life different from one’s own’ than any novel is likely to do. One must not ‘push [this] claim [too] far’, however, for ‘a novelist who has lived wholly within the society described (Lady Murasaki [Ap], for instance) can give much more of the truth about it than reporting or a field survey’. Includes passing reference to ‘Japanese atrocities’ committed during the war.