Japanese writers have this knack of tugging at one’s heartstrings. They expressed deep and honest sentiment without too much fuss. Their honesty is their own subtlety. They can avoid sentimentalism by hiding under its veil. Soseki is one such writer, and in ‘Kokoro’ he has given us an anatomy of loneliness and mortality. The existential pain is muted, as if dampening the piercing cries of a melodrama, only to produce a howling silence.

The novel is divided into three parts, all told in the first person point of view. The first two were related by a student, and the last part by Sensei, his newfound friend who in some ways he considered his mentor. The character of Sensei lies at the heart of ‘Kokoro’, which in the foreword the translator Edwin McClellan said a word that means ‘the heart of things.’ The book gave us a portrait of the man Sensei, how he came to be an aloof and detached man that he was and how he came to have such a singularly bleak worldview where men are always suspect and were out to get the better of his fellowmen.

It can be said that ‘Kokoro’ is a product of its time, with its reference to the passing Meiji era and to certain famous personalities of the Japanese empire at that time. It is less a eulogy to the past era than a meditation on what it all amounted to. It illuminates some of the customs and norms of Japan (including its depiction of gender relations) at the turn of the 20th century. However, in its modern (existentialist) treatment of the themes of friendship, love, betrayal, and guilt, the book remains as timeless as can be. ( )

Monstrous ending. ( )

I bought this book at Half-Priced books because the title was familiar, and I am trying to read new-to-me, non-American authors. The first two parts are a little dull, as they center on the lonely student narrator, but the third part is a showstopper. While the rest of the book is told from the student’s point of view, the third part is presented in the form of a letter from the lonelier Sensei and I was entranced. The book builds up slowing, and then hits you with a one-two emotional-philosophical punch. If you have to write an essay on friendship, loneliness, love or death, be sure to read this book. I cannot wait to read more by Soseki. ( )