_CRACKLING MOUNTAIN AND OTHER STORIES_ FEATURES ELEVEN OUTSTANDING WORKS BY OSAMA DAZAI, WIDELY REGARDED AS ONE OF THE 20TH CENTURY JAPAN'S MOST GIFTED WRITERS. Dazai experimented with a wide variety of short story styles and brought to each a sophisticated sense of humor, a broad empathy for the human condition, and a tremendous literary talent. The eleven stories in this collection of Japanese literature present the most fully rounded portrait available of a tragic, multifaceted genius of modern Japanese letters.