Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata


Finished 5/6 ...... Japanese 20th century ....... rating 8

This is a very slow-moving and subtle work by a master of language. In Japanese the text supposedly reads similar to haiku, and I could detect it slightly in the English version as translated by Edward . Seidensticker. It was far more prominent in the beautifully descriptive passages. The dialogue is very subtle and whole changes in tone can be read from just one word. Every word is vital.

I like this sort of thing when I have the time. My reading this time was a bit fast so I could stand to go through it again. I read his The Sound of the Mountain twice and got ever so much more out of it the second time.

Snow Country is the story of a Japanese gentleman and a mountain spa geisha. The characters and their tensions are beautifully drawn as they don't expect to find love but it kind of happens to them anyway but they don't recognize it or know how to deal with it. This is not supposed to happen between Japanese men and geishas.

There is a theme of waste running through the book - wasted lives and wasted beauty, wasted time and wasted love. Very sad. I would totally hate to see the American movie of it.

Bekah

Posted: Sun - May 6, 2007 at 10:17 AM        

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