Mikio Naruse’s adaptation of writer Fumiko Hayashi’s autobiography begins in the gutters of Japan as young Fumiko slugs her way through a succession of bad jobs and worse men. Slowly making her way from menial labor to artistic success, she finds the jobs slightly better, but the men the same. Naruse felt an obvious bond with Hayashi (he adapted sixteen of her works), and it’s never clearer than in this “final, beautiful tribute to her” (Phillip Lopate). A love letter from one artist to another, A Wanderer’s Notebook celebrates a woman who created art from turmoil and, when faced with jealous lovers, found greater success in solitude.