The Fox and Dr. Shimamura toothsomely encompasses Japan and Europe, memory and actuality, fox-possession myths and psychiatric mythmaking. The novel begins near the storys end, in Dr. Shimamuras retirement. A feverish invalid, hes watched over by four women: his wife, his mother, his mother-in- law, and a nurse (originally one of his psychiatric patients). His mother is busily writing and rewriting his biography, Between Genius and Madness.As an outstanding young Japanese medical student at the end of the nineteenth century, Dr. Shimamura is sentto his dismayto the provinces: he is asked to cure scores of young women of an epidemic of fox possession. He considers the assignment a joke, believing its all a hoax, until he sees a fox moving under the skin of a beauty. He comes to believe not just in fox possession, but also that he in fact cured the young woman with a kiss, by breathing in the fox demon (the root of his lifelong fever).Next he travels to Europe and works with such luminaries as Charcot, Breuer and (briefly) Freud himself (whose methods he concludes are incompatible with Japanese politeness). The ironic parallels between Charcots hack theories of female hysteria and Japanese ancient folklorewhen it comes to beautiful writhing young womenare handled with a lightly sardonic touch by Christine Wunnicke, whose flavor-packed language is a delight.