Kawabata Yasunari -- Snow Country and Thousand Cranes

[jain]

4. Kawabata Yasunari, Snow Country

I had high hopes for this book, about the relationship between a wealthy urbanite and a geisha at a hot springs resort in the mountains. Unfortunately, although several of the characters were sympathetic and interesting, the narrative itself felt unsatisfying. There were too few resolutions and too many unsolved mysteries, especially regarding a few of the characters' personal histories and their interrelationships.

The writing style was also hit and miss for me. Some passages were breathtakingly lovely, only to be followed by others that were banal or excessively belabored. The translation may be partially to blame, but it can't account for infelicitous writing choices such as the metaphor in the line: "The high, thin nose was a little lonely, a little sad, but the bud of her lips opened and closed smoothly, like a beautiful little circle of leeches."

5. Kawabata Yasunari, Thousand Cranes

Much more to my taste, this is a lovely, perceptive novel about family, love, betrayal, and the tea ceremony. One brief suggestion of violence in a scene midway through the book felt out of place to me; otherwise, the story is very well crafted and the characters believable and finely drawn.

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

the bud of her lips opened and closed smoothly, like a beautiful little circle of leeches.

HEE!

[jain]

:-)

[sage]

Ooh, I read Snow Country for a Japanese lit class about ten years ago. I remember it as a picture of people, ideas, and circumstances that could never succeed where the reader was asked to see the beauty in it *anyway*. Part of the class discussion was about how well it fit with a turn of the century Jamesian aesthetic, but how difficult it was for us. Because a lot of us were saying, "What the hell was the point of that?" And others were saying, "But it was a beautiful--and kind of disturbing--journey, wasn't it?"

I can't remember whether I ever read Thousand Cranes. Thanks for the reminder of Kawabata's work. :D

[jain]

It definitely had its beautiful elements, but, yeah, I had trouble really caring about the book because it gave me so little tangible stuff about the characters. I was honestly a bit surprised to discover that it was one of three books specifically praised by the committee that awarded Kawabata the Nobel Prize in Literature.

[erinlin.livejournal.com]

Snow Country left me cold (no pun intended), but I loved The Old Capital. The story begins by focusing on a violet growing on a tree, then does this awesome narrative camera pan out to the tree, the backyard, the house, the street, the town, the country side- then links the two together and zooms back in for the finish. Beautiful book.

[jain]

Thanks for the recommendation! I've been on a real Kawabata kick lately, and I wasn't sure which book of his I wanted to pick up next.