"Taking its title from Milton: A Poem, Oe’s novel (1983) is indeed saturated by Blake. An author-narrator tries to prepare his mentally disabled son for independence by equipping him with concepts derived (of all things) from his reading of Blake. As improbable as that plot may seem, it prompts a radical rethinking of sympathy that remains true to Blake’s own experiments while extending sympathy into entirely new territory. Tracking the transformation of an English Romantic visionary by a contemporary Japanese reader, the novel is also an innovative reflection on literary history, which unfolds in ways every bit as unpredictable as Blake described when he wrote of Milton falling from heaven like a star and entering his left foot."