How do you extend a vacation to Japan? By reading classic Japanese literature at home!
Kawabata was the first Japanese author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Sound of the Mountain is a mid-career novel from the early 1950s. The main character, Ogata Shingo, is an old man pondering his life as his friends are dying, his memory is failing, and his children are dealing with difficult marriages.
The Sound of the Mountain is a very Japanese book, in the same sense that Ozu films are very Japanese. The "action" consists of small domestic incidents and the passing of the seasons; the themes concern our responsibilities to each other and the disappointments of a lived life.
The cover says, "Of all modern Japanese fiction, Kawabata's is the closest to poetry," and refers to the book as "lyrical and precise." I would describe is as delicate and lovely. Most of the short chapters describe quiet conversations about the garden or everyday minutiae, but the details feel freighted with meaning. It's much more hopeful than expected with a fading elderly protagonist.
My one complaint is that the language is often awkward when it means to be oblique. I suspect a too-literal translation from Edward Siedensticker. Mr Siedensticker translated a lot of classic Japanese literature, but I would be very interested in reading a new translation of this one.
Kawabata was the first Japanese author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Sound of the Mountain is a mid-career novel from the early 1950s. The main character, Ogata Shingo, is an old man pondering his life as his friends are dying, his memory is failing, and his children are dealing with difficult marriages.
The Sound of the Mountain is a very Japanese book, in the same sense that Ozu films are very Japanese. The "action" consists of small domestic incidents and the passing of the seasons; the themes concern our responsibilities to each other and the disappointments of a lived life.
The cover says, "Of all modern Japanese fiction, Kawabata's is the closest to poetry," and refers to the book as "lyrical and precise." I would describe is as delicate and lovely. Most of the short chapters describe quiet conversations about the garden or everyday minutiae, but the details feel freighted with meaning. It's much more hopeful than expected with a fading elderly protagonist.
My one complaint is that the language is often awkward when it means to be oblique. I suspect a too-literal translation from Edward Siedensticker. Mr Siedensticker translated a lot of classic Japanese literature, but I would be very interested in reading a new translation of this one.
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