Snow Country [Hardcover]

 

 

Create your own review

I started reading this book because it was based on an onsen geisha by the name of Matsuei. You can see her picture on Wikipedia. I like his writing style but because there is no plot the book comes across as very boring.
When the book is taken into Japanese context it becomes a piece of art.
Modern geishas are motivated by art and culture. The geishas in the early 1900's were motivated by money. Older married men are attracted to geishas, not young bachelors. If a woman becomes a geisha she would know that she was giving up the prospect of finding a husband. She will always be the number two woman in any mans life. The Japanese readers would know this.
The Japanese consider a wilted flower more beautiful than a flower in bloom. The characters are going in this direction.
The Japanese also have something called Haragei, which is an implicit way of communicating; this book is full of it.
Here are some words to a geisha song:
'Old man let's play together, Better hurry up, You don't have much time, Come let's play' I looks like this novel is following the theme of the geisha song.
I strongly suspect that the book was written out of compassion for the geisha Matsuei, so I would guess that the sadness in the book is a reflection of what was going on in her life.
I had real trouble rating this book. The problem is the book does not come to you. You have to want to look inside the book to feel it.

Unless you are familiar with Japanese culture and language, you will find Snow Country different from most any novel you may have read. Read superficially the novel appears to follow a simple plot and structure. Yet, its intensity and beauty lies in the lyrical imagery of landscape and evocation of the protagonists' complex psyche and their relationships. The novel can be compared to a Japanese brushstroke painting, economic and suggestive, where the observant eye is able to complete the picture or the story. To fully appreciate Kawabata's prose in English, newcomers are well advised to empty their minds of other, mainly western, literary experiences and expectations and open up to a different world. Snow Country has to be read at a very slow pace. Every word has importance, with sometimes more than one meaning. With these preparations and attitude of mind, Snow Country is an enriching experience that will linger on long after reading it.

Kawabata tells the story of Shimamura, a wealthy man of leisure who's visiting a hot springs mountain resort to meet the local geisha, Komako. He comes for distraction and out of boredom with his real life in Tokyo. Komako is a reluctant geisha, but has resigned herself to her role, while hoping for some other life. The contrast between what they are and what they would like to be is played out in their interactions. Shimamura is drawn to the unreal or the unlikely or impossible. He wants to remain "just friends" with Komako. Her chatty and highly emotional outbursts leave him somewhat amused and bored, yet he misses her when away from her. She does not behave like a real mountain geisha. His room is like a refuge from that life, a place where she can literally let her hair down. Shimamura's attraction for the other young girl, Yoko, a friend and rival to Komako, is as contradictory. In her shyness and reserve she is desirable. She appears to him beautiful and pure, a delicate reflection in the window against the mountain landscape.

Nature and landscape are of great importance to Kawabata and articulated through Shimamura. Nature's beauty is felt more intensely by him than anything else. When he and Komako find themselves outdoors, they have nothing to say to each other. Yet even nature provokes contradictory emotions in Shimamura. "...he looked upon mountain climbing as almost a model of wasted effort. For that very reason it pulled at him with the attraction of the unreal."

Kawabata was one of Japan's most famous writers. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. His Nobel Lecture elucidates his deep affinity to and understanding of classical haiku poetry. Haiku represents a fundamental element of Japanese culture then and now. Snow Country has been described as haiku in prose. Kawabata uses a shorthand style for his descriptions, evoking simultaneously multiple senses, like colour and temperature, stillness and motion, attraction and rejection. Nature is all encompassing with people one component of the wider picture. The novel is rich in symbolism and references to Japanese traditions and mythology. However, some are easier to identify than others. While accepting that the English language reader will miss some of the deeper meanings and connotations, Snow Country is a novel that opens a fascinating world and deservedly has an enviable place in international literature. It is difficult to comment on the quality of Seidensticker's translation. Still, as others have expressed, one wonders whether the translation could have contributed more to the novel's appreciation by the reader. [Friederike Knabe]

Kawabata is one of Japan's most respected authors, and "Snow Country" is his masterpiece. However, that does not mean that this is a book for everyone, or that everyone will necessarily understand or enjoy the novel. In fact, I got my copy as a cast-off from a friend who said it was incredibly boring and he didn't want to keep it.

It is a demanding read, one that expects the reader to be able to catch the substance of the unsaid, the implied. Almost nothing is spoon-fed. There is no action, no crisis, nothing that most literary traditions has lead readers to expect from a novel. It demands patience, even though it is a slender volume.

Personally, I found it captivating, and intensely deep and moving. Having read other Kawabata, I was prepared for the subtlety of style and the sparseness of language and story that is his trademark. He is the inheritor of the Haiku, which implies with as few words as necessary. The emotional depth of the novel is incredibly deep, much deeper than many novels I have read who express with much more fanciful language. The Geisha and the Dilettante, the one who affects love but cannot know true love, and the one who gives herself to love even though she knows it cannot be. It is a passionless affair, yet intense. Like the snow country itself, the landscape of their hearts is sparse, yet life lies under the surface covering of insulation.

I did find the translation annoying and disappointing, and I was surprised to find such a lackluster translation on one of Japan's premier novels. The constant use of quotations for "mountain trousers," for instance, instead of just naming it once and using the Japanese term. I am sure that a better translation could capture the novel even better, and perhaps transport it for a new audience.

All in all, one of the best Japanese novels that I have read. Simply incredible, and worth the time. But remember your patience.

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 33 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

 

4.0 out of 5 stars Subtle and Simple, but it offers alot
The plot is subtle, as it is was intended. The symbols and themes are countless. The language is simple but beautiful. Read more

Published on Nov 24 2003 by Robert Sheppard

1.0 out of 5 stars Read if you enjoy Buddhist texts.
I was greatly disappointed by this book. I found the main character, Shimamaru, difficult at times to identify with, mostly because of his insentivity to the things going on... Read more

Published on Oct 19 2003 by William Wu

2.0 out of 5 stars Plain and unextraordinary
As the so-caled masterpiece of one of Japan's most renowned writer, and one of the only two who have been awared a Nobel prize for literature (so far), I had pretty high... Read more

Published on Sep 21 2003 by Wilmington

4.0 out of 5 stars Snapshots from the snow country
There are no revelations, no unwindings, no developments present in this book. Other than the change of season marked by two visits of the male protagonist Shimamura to the snow... Read more

Published on May 7 2003 by S. Park

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and Thought Provoking
Snow Country is the story of Shimamura, a wealthy Tokyo denizen who is unable to love and his trip to a hot spring in the snow country of Western Japan. Read more

Published on April 20 2003 by Randyll McDermott

1.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely terrible
I'm being generous with the one star rating. I would've given it a zero but a rating that low is impossible. There was no plot to this book. Read more

Published on Feb 25 2003 by Joe Julian

5.0 out of 5 stars So many themes, I don't know where to begin
After completely hating (and saying so in a previous review) Kawabata's Sound of the Mountain, I wanted to find out why he was selected for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Read more

Published on Nov 21 2002 by raboof

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pepe Pick
One of the best novels of the century.

Published on Jun 13 2002 by sparky

5.0 out of 5 stars Sad Beauty
I will admit that when I finished the book, my first thought was something along the lines of "What? That's the end?!? Read more

Published on Feb 28 2002 by Charles E. Stevens

4.0 out of 5 stars Heart of Decadence
Yasunaki Kawabata was the first Japanese novelist to win the Nobel Prize for literature. He is not as good a novelist as his contemporary Juchiro Tanizaki or his predecessor... Read more

Published on Feb 21 2002 by pnotley@hotmail.com

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 33 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Search Listmania!