Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972)

I savored this book slowly. I think that a quick read of this will make it just another story. Being with the book allows the simple at first tale to sink into you. As described, a significant theme is the march of time. That concept is subtly woven through and really hits home over the course of the narrative.

Having lived in modern Japan, it was worthwhile to hear about another time. Truly another time but only so many decades ago. How life has changed, and how it has not. The struggles of humanity are not trapped into one particular period.

I enjoyed this book and was also saddened. Life keeps moving forward.

As I noted, do not rush through. Enjoy the read.… (more)

I read one of the stories, Obasute, by Yasushi Inoue on 24 Feb 24. The writing is spare, stripped of excessive description. I suppose it could be a story about people who want out of their lives, and includes a couple of examples from the narrator's family who have left what would be considered successful lives for new lives that aren't really successful, but where they have more freedom to be themselves. On the surface, it's about a man's obsession with an ancient Japanese legend where people who reach the age of 70 are taken to a mountain, Obasute, and abandoned. Overall, the story evokes a feeling of loneliness and abandonment.… (more)

There were moments in Snow Country where I was transported but often I was confused either about who was talking or where I was. In part, this could have been the translation but in, in part, it was due to abrupt transitions and contradictions such as on page 102-103 when Shimamura is at first thinking about leaving and then suddenly is getting off a train at a random station, which is not really random at all

He thought of going to see Chijimi country. That excursion might set him on his way to breaking away from the hot spring.

He did not know at which of the towns downstream he should get off the train. Not interested in moderen weaving centres, he chose a town that looked suitably lonely and backward.

n example of a sublime moment was when Komako sees him in a taxi:

She had lept at the car as if to devour it, but for Shimamura something warm had suddenly come near. The impulsive act struck him as neither rash nor unnatural. Komako raised ne arm, half-embracing the closed window. Her kimono sleeve fell back from her wrist, and the warm red of the under kimono, spilled through the thick glass, sank its way into the half-frozen Shimamura. p. 105.

Overall, I was hoping for more from this story and a Nobel Prize winner. For me the story went nowhere.… (more)