diff --git a/serialize.cc b/serialize.cc
index 43fd0e3..de24a31 100644
--- a/serialize.cc
+++ b/serialize.cc
@@ -2,19 +2,21 @@
 #include "serialize.h"
 #include <string.h>
 #include <iconv.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
 using namespace std;
 
 refptr< vector<unichar_t> > deserialize(const char * encoding, istream & in)
 {
     const int buf_size = 200;
     int num_read;
-    char inbuf[buf_size];
+    char * inbuf = new char[buf_size];
     char * inbuf_ptr = (char *) &inbuf[0];
-    unichar_t outbuf[buf_size];
+    unichar_t * outbuf = new unichar_t[buf_size];
     char * outbuf_ptr;
     size_t chars_converted, inbytesleft = 0, outbytesleft;
     refptr< vector<unichar_t> > ucs = new vector<unichar_t>();
 
+    cout << "encoding: " << encoding << endl;
     iconv_t cd = iconv_open(encoding, "UTF-32");
     if (cd == (iconv_t) -1)
     {
@@ -22,19 +24,29 @@ refptr< vector<unichar_t> > deserialize(const char * encoding, istream & in)
         return NULL;
     }
 
+    outbuf_ptr = (char *) &outbuf[0];
+    outbytesleft = buf_size * sizeof(outbuf[0]);
+    iconv(cd, NULL, NULL, &outbuf_ptr, &outbytesleft);
+    cout << "initial outbytesleft: " << outbytesleft << endl;
+
     for (;;)
     {
-        in.read(inbuf_ptr, sizeof(inbuf) - inbytesleft);
+        in.read(inbuf_ptr, buf_size * sizeof(inbuf[0]) - inbytesleft);
         num_read = in.gcount();
         cout << "num_read: " << num_read << endl;
         if (num_read <= 0)
             break;
         inbytesleft += num_read;
         outbuf_ptr = (char *) &outbuf[0];
-        outbytesleft = sizeof(outbuf);
+        outbytesleft = buf_size * sizeof(outbuf[0]);
         cout << "before inbytesleft: " << inbytesleft << ", outbytesleft: " << outbytesleft << endl;
+        cout << "inbuf_ptr: " << inbuf_ptr << endl;
         chars_converted = iconv(cd, &inbuf_ptr, &inbytesleft,
                 &outbuf_ptr, &outbytesleft);
+        if (chars_converted == (size_t) -1)
+        {
+            perror("iconv() error");
+        }
         cout << "chars_converted: " << chars_converted << endl;
         cout << "after inbytesleft: " << inbytesleft << ", outbytesleft: " << outbytesleft << endl;
         if (inbytesleft > 0)
@@ -43,7 +55,8 @@ refptr< vector<unichar_t> > deserialize(const char * encoding, istream & in)
         }
         inbuf_ptr = ((char *) &inbuf[0]) + inbytesleft;
         for (int i = 0;
-             i < ((sizeof(outbuf) - outbytesleft) / sizeof(outbuf[0]));
+             i < (((buf_size * sizeof(outbuf[0])) - outbytesleft)
+                 / sizeof(outbuf[0]));
              i++)
         {
             ucs->push_back(outbuf[i]);
@@ -52,6 +65,8 @@ refptr< vector<unichar_t> > deserialize(const char * encoding, istream & in)
             break;
     }
 
+    delete[] inbuf;
+    delete[] outbuf;
     iconv_close(cd);
     return ucs;
 }