Kawabata Yasunari -- The Sound of the Mountain

[jain]

2. Kawabata Yasunari, The Sound of the Mountain

This immediately became one of my favorite books. From a certain perspective, it's a very ordinary story of a family more unhappy than not, whose unhappiness is founded not in over-the-top angst, but in the every day disappointments of life. The son is having an affair; the daughter is in the process of separating from her husband; the father (and POV character) is getting older and his memory isn't what it used to be, causing him some embarrassment.

The delicate and nuanced observations on social interactions, however, elevate the book to something extraordinary. Each scene is perfectly placed, and even elements that are frequent pitfalls for less talented writers (dream sequences; newspaper articles read by the characters to each other) fit seamlessly and naturally into the narrative.

The sympathetic relationship between the father and his daughter-in-law is particularly well-done. It forms an excellent contrast with the other familial relationships, in which the members all too often find themselves out of step with each other. Highly recommended for anyone who likes bittersweet stories about aging and family.

Comments

[b-writes.livejournal.com]

I read a short story collection by Kawabata years ago, but never any of his longer works. This sounds worth checking out.

[jain]

I've actually been meaning to check out his short stories; I read somewhere that Kawabata considered them to be finer than his novels (though I find that hard to believe in the case of The Sound of the Mountain and The Master of Go).

[b-writes.livejournal.com]

That's what my copy of Palm-of-the-Hand Stories says. And I think for someone as detail-oriented as he was, the short stories might have felt a bit more 'easy to control.' More like poetry.