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#5 Platform - Snow Country
May. 9th, 2007 04:36 pmFor something that was supposed to be so cold, it was still pretty moving.
Book #21: Snow Country (雪国)
Author: Yasunari Kawabata, translated by Edward Seidensticker
Provenance: Bought at Regent Books
This one took a long time to read, even though it was only 175 pages long. Part of this was that I was really busy, but part of it is that this is really the sort of book that requires one to sit there and consider the images and the exchanges being presented. The style is spare, but there are parts that seem to be important that are only hinted at, so it calls for one to ponder what's going on.
At heart, this is the story of a man from Tokyo and his romance with a woman who becomes a geisha in the mountains of northwestern Japan; Kawabata, I think, was talking about somewhere in Niigata when making his descriptions. Their relationship is fairly complicated, but it seems to have a big component of her knowing it can't work with someone as careless with feelings and free of time as Shimamura, the man involved. But somehow, she can't get away from him; her reactions are fairly interesting, going back and forth.
The plot really just is that; there's not much more beyond it. He comes to the village she lives in three different times, and that's the story. But for all that, it's still a pretty rich story. And I liked the style of the translation; I read it in English mostly because I had never read anything translated by Seidensticker before, and I felt like I should get a feel for his work. It flowed pretty well, and the parts that struck me as strange I think were in the original. (Really, wet, red lips like... leeches?)
Anyway, this was a good one, and I should try more Kawabata soon, I think. I already picked up a short story collection of his; maybe some time soon.
Next up: Rebel Angels. Maybe the second one will be better than the first.
Book #21: Snow Country (雪国)
Author: Yasunari Kawabata, translated by Edward Seidensticker
Provenance: Bought at Regent Books
This one took a long time to read, even though it was only 175 pages long. Part of this was that I was really busy, but part of it is that this is really the sort of book that requires one to sit there and consider the images and the exchanges being presented. The style is spare, but there are parts that seem to be important that are only hinted at, so it calls for one to ponder what's going on.
At heart, this is the story of a man from Tokyo and his romance with a woman who becomes a geisha in the mountains of northwestern Japan; Kawabata, I think, was talking about somewhere in Niigata when making his descriptions. Their relationship is fairly complicated, but it seems to have a big component of her knowing it can't work with someone as careless with feelings and free of time as Shimamura, the man involved. But somehow, she can't get away from him; her reactions are fairly interesting, going back and forth.
The plot really just is that; there's not much more beyond it. He comes to the village she lives in three different times, and that's the story. But for all that, it's still a pretty rich story. And I liked the style of the translation; I read it in English mostly because I had never read anything translated by Seidensticker before, and I felt like I should get a feel for his work. It flowed pretty well, and the parts that struck me as strange I think were in the original. (Really, wet, red lips like... leeches?)
Anyway, this was a good one, and I should try more Kawabata soon, I think. I already picked up a short story collection of his; maybe some time soon.
Next up: Rebel Angels. Maybe the second one will be better than the first.
