Spring Snow is described on the cover as "A novel with the perfect beauty of a Japanese garden.." from a review by the Chicago Sun Times. Having just finished the book and seen a few Japanese gardens in Tokyo, and the temple towns of Kamakura and Kyoto, I'm inclined to agree. The writing is consistently beautiful, though the pace does slow down for long stretches. In both, its pace and its beauty, Spring Snow is typical of Mishima's other works (Forbidden Colors is the work that most clearly comes to mind).

Spring Snow is a tragic romance, with a frustratingly unreasonable protagonist who seems bent on his own destruction. The nineteen year old Kiyoaki Matsugae is difficult to empathize with as he uses his pride and beauty to hammer everyone around him into a reverence that seems ridiculous. Kiyoaki's doomed love affair with the beautiful Satoko Ayakura is as tumultuous as it is short lived, and so, almost by design.

Recommended

By far the best of the 4 in the series. I read it back in the early 80's, and of the 4, this is the one I am considering to read again. ( )

After reading "Death in Midsummer," I started to explore Mishima's novels and started with Spring Snow. In some ways, it reminds me of Edith Wharton or Tolstoy, that ability to capture the whole of a society in a book, to show all its foibles, conflicts, and prejudices. Mishima's prose is always sharp and cutting, but underneath it all is that sadness, his disappointment in the state of Japan at the time of the novel's writing. ( )

A beautiful work. A tale of love so tragic and immense, that it's meaning transcends any labels and strikes the deepest chords of human emotion. A pain jabs at my heart, now, upon completing it. No doubt a cornerstone of Japanese Literature. I am now eager to read he rest of the tetralogy. ( )

If you want to start reading Mishima, start with this one (the first of the tetralogy), or with "Sailor". A superb, poetic translation. ( )