Botchan

A blunt, hot-tempered younger son from Tokyo takes a post teaching mathematics in a small town on Shikoku. The pupils test him on his first night, and the staff room proves craftier still, with its intrigues and its nicknames. Incapable of calculation or compromise, he takes sides, makes enemies and prepares his own kind of revenge. The novel explores clumsy honesty, the hypocrisy of institutions and homesickness. Sōseki makes of it a fast comedy, carried by a spoken voice that passes judgement out loud.