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100th out of 348 books
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1,245 voters
Palm-of-the-Hand Stories
Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, the novelist Yasunari Kawabata felt the essence of his art was to be found not in his longer works but in a series of short stories--which he called "Palm-of-the-Hand Stories"--written over the span of his career. In them we find loneliness, love, and the passage of time, demonstrating the range and complexity of a true m
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Paperback, 280 pages
Published
November 14th 2006
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
(first published 1963)
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Apr 26, 2011
Mariel
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
polar
Recommended to Mariel by:
solar
Shelves:
rubber-ring
Yasunari Kawabata's Palm-of-the-Hand Stories could be my key to my own heart. Palmists! Why didn't I think of that? They are short, like echoes inside that sound fainter as time passes, but are important enough to leave its footprint (handprint?) behind. Fucking haunting me kinda faint. "Oh." Much later: "Oh!" Yeah, he's got me. The eyes as windows to the souls thing that I like no matter how cliched it is (staring! you can't look away 'ship WRECKS), the Mona Lisa secret smiles, millions of tiny...more
Due to the success of two of my writing teachers (Pete Rock and Bruce Holland Rogers), I wanted to study short-shorts/flash fiction and this was a good place to begin.
Although "Canaries" is probably the most anthologized of Kawabata's stories, I found a other treasures in this tome. "The Rainy Station" is one of those. Beginning with the opening line "Wives, wives, wives,..." it carries the reader throughout the disappointing life of a typical housewife with an interesting twist. So many of the...more
Although "Canaries" is probably the most anthologized of Kawabata's stories, I found a other treasures in this tome. "The Rainy Station" is one of those. Beginning with the opening line "Wives, wives, wives,..." it carries the reader throughout the disappointing life of a typical housewife with an interesting twist. So many of the...more
Another annotation from my MFA/Creative Writing work at Goddard this semester:
Talismans Inside Koans Masquerading as Fairy Tales: Yasunari Kawabata’s Palm-of-the-Hand Stories
The toss of a silver coin determines whom a boy should marry, but a sparrow shows the boy that in his next life he will marry a sparrow. A vision is had, and something that might be considered a lesson or generalization about human existence is imparted—i.e., don’t worry about marrying the girl, because in your next life yo...more
Talismans Inside Koans Masquerading as Fairy Tales: Yasunari Kawabata’s Palm-of-the-Hand Stories
The toss of a silver coin determines whom a boy should marry, but a sparrow shows the boy that in his next life he will marry a sparrow. A vision is had, and something that might be considered a lesson or generalization about human existence is imparted—i.e., don’t worry about marrying the girl, because in your next life yo...more
Seventy miniature short stories that Kawabata wrote between 1923 and 1972. It’s said the essence of Kawabata’s writing can be found in these brief episodes in Japanese lives more so than in his novels, but in truth they often feel like fragments of larger stories that Kawabata may have discarded then stripped down to their absolute minimum. Many end with a character staring into the distance, perhaps wondering something, or with an unresolved issue still hanging uncomfortably in the reader’s min...more
These stories are the Japanese equivalent of Lydia Davis's short short stories, as so employ more aesthetic considerations. Where Davis's stories are pure practices in economy, Kawabata's stories are more about the distillation of complicated interpersonal stories into beautiful tableaux, sometimes with a distracting predilection for the dreamlike.
Notes:
Kawabata, as opposed to Lydia Davis, gives his short short stories a haze of dreaminess with deft, artful, but inexact images, whereas Davis is...more
Notes:
Kawabata, as opposed to Lydia Davis, gives his short short stories a haze of dreaminess with deft, artful, but inexact images, whereas Davis is...more
Jan 30, 2013
Erasmo Guerra
added it
I wanted to love this book. Over the years, I've heard so many great things about these short-short stories, but I could never really quite get into them even though I read the entire collection. Reminded me of looking at the gorgeous window displays at Tiffany--things of beauty that I couldn't quite touch, unable to reach them emotionally or otherwise understand what was going on or why. The subtlety and shades of meaning were lost on me. The recurring environments of hot spring inns and charac...more
Solo por el adjetivo "sorprendente" se gana este libro 3 de las 4 estrellas que le puse. Combina cuentos perfectos con otros completamente incomprensibles. Los bellos son realmente bellos, los incomprensibles tienen momentos bellos y una pasmosa incompletitud de sentido para este pobre cerebro occidental. Muchos de estos últimos (porque son realmente muchos de los muchos del volumen)me han hecho cerrar el libro y explorarlo, darlo vuelta entre mis manos, volver a mirarlo de un lado y del otro, c...more
it's been 4 years or so since I read these stories but the way I felt still glows in me. This is not to say I can remember any details of the stories themselves.. I can't. That's how I am. But the feelings of awe. Of encountering strange beauty. Of being led slowly through small but intricate (and glowing also) little gardens and baths. That all glows in me. It's a book of glowing flesh. Of a bitch about to whelp.
I came to this book by sheer chance. Beckian Goldberg Fritz (who's used the word co...more
I came to this book by sheer chance. Beckian Goldberg Fritz (who's used the word co...more
جانب آخر يظهر إبداع كاواباتا الأدبي...قصص كما وصفها تماما بحجم راحة اليد...ولكنها تطرق أبواب القلب والحياة...وتربط بين الإنسان والطبيعة من حوله متجاوزة كل الحواجز...فــ :
" الثلج، القمر، البراعم، تلك كلمات تعبر عن الفصول، فيما هي تنداح مفضية أحدها إلى الآخر، وهي تشتمل، في التقاليد اليابانية، مجال الجبال، الأنهار، الأعشاب، الأشجار، وتجليات الطبيعة الوافرة، والمشاعر الإنسانية كذلك"
بحجم راحة اليد...نعم...ولكنها بعيدة عن التسطيح رغم بساطتها...عميقة في اختزال جزء كبير من الحياة اليابانية بتقاليدها وأج...more
" الثلج، القمر، البراعم، تلك كلمات تعبر عن الفصول، فيما هي تنداح مفضية أحدها إلى الآخر، وهي تشتمل، في التقاليد اليابانية، مجال الجبال، الأنهار، الأعشاب، الأشجار، وتجليات الطبيعة الوافرة، والمشاعر الإنسانية كذلك"
بحجم راحة اليد...نعم...ولكنها بعيدة عن التسطيح رغم بساطتها...عميقة في اختزال جزء كبير من الحياة اليابانية بتقاليدها وأج...more
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Like a small stone dropped into a pond, these minute but potent stories send out ripples long after they've been read. Some of the stories I read over and over are "Snow," "Up in the Tree," "Immortality," "Yuriko,"
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This was a charming, odd, and nearly unclassifiable book. It's a series of very short stories, most nearly one or two pages long, that illuminate weighty moments in the characters lives. The stories were written in a 50-year span, starting in 1922 and ending in the early 70's. This is flash fiction before the genre had a name.
The book is a mixed bag, some stories don't quite cohere as well as the others do as far as connecting with the reader or providing a deep emotional resonance. But the sto...more
The book is a mixed bag, some stories don't quite cohere as well as the others do as far as connecting with the reader or providing a deep emotional resonance. But the sto...more
Maybe had some unrealistic expectations about how good this one would be. His ability to write complete stories with a narrative and few gimmicks in two to four pages is amazing, and it was surprising how much some of the stories reminded me of Carver rather than other Japanese authors, but I expected more. There are about 70 stories in the collection, and probably less than a third of them had an effect on me. The others were either choppy (probably a translation issue), or too obvious, or too...more
Dec 04, 2010
Karen
is currently reading it
The short story is the best friend of the graduate student: beautiful, brief escapism so that she can quickly get back to the mostly tedious seminary reading! Kawabata is a Japanese writer, who won the Nobel Prize for literature back when that prize actually meant something. I read a handful of his short stories in a contemporary world lit course long ago and am now enjoying getting reacquainted. So far my favorite story is still the whimsical, highly imaginative, and profound "The Grasshopper a...more
Tiny stories that are more like poems.
I approached this book in the wrong way. I consumed as many of them in one go as I could and almost certainly shouldn't have. Kawabata crafts beautiful images that can have a profound effect on you but when you pile image upon image they lose all appeal and the effect is dulled. I knew this and yet I kept on reading until my brain couldn't hold any more imagery, kind of like an addiction I suppose.
This is the kind of work you can return to many times and pic...more
I approached this book in the wrong way. I consumed as many of them in one go as I could and almost certainly shouldn't have. Kawabata crafts beautiful images that can have a profound effect on you but when you pile image upon image they lose all appeal and the effect is dulled. I knew this and yet I kept on reading until my brain couldn't hold any more imagery, kind of like an addiction I suppose.
This is the kind of work you can return to many times and pic...more
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Yasunari Kawabata is one of the most brilliant writers to walk the earth and this collection of his shortest fiction really exemplifies what he can do. These stories are extremely varied in terms of style and content, but they're all similar in that they're all exceptionally short.
Kawabata takes everything out of the story except for the bones and his stories range from absolutely beautiful to silly. I found myself trying to commit entire stories to memory. Though extremely brief, they hit hard....more
Kawabata takes everything out of the story except for the bones and his stories range from absolutely beautiful to silly. I found myself trying to commit entire stories to memory. Though extremely brief, they hit hard....more
من الكتب التي ظلمها عنوانها بلا شكّ، وإن كان العنوان دافعاً ومحرضاً للانطلاق في القراءة. قصص بحجم راحة اليدّ هي مجموعة قصصية للكاتب الياباني ياسوناري كاواباتا، لماذا قرأتها؟ لأنني وجدت في الأدب الياباني سحراً لا يقاوم.
ولأن قصصاً بهذا الحجم سريعة الالتهام، خصوصاً إذا كنتم تمرون بالحالة المعاكسة لاحتباس الكتابة ألا وهي: احتباس القراءة.
يقول النقاد عن الكتاب بأنه مجموعة من النصوص "التجريبية" التي كتبها الحائز على نوبل في الآداب، لم تكن القصص كلها بالقوة التي تبحث عنها لدى مؤلف "نوبلي" لكن لكل منها ر...more
ولأن قصصاً بهذا الحجم سريعة الالتهام، خصوصاً إذا كنتم تمرون بالحالة المعاكسة لاحتباس الكتابة ألا وهي: احتباس القراءة.
يقول النقاد عن الكتاب بأنه مجموعة من النصوص "التجريبية" التي كتبها الحائز على نوبل في الآداب، لم تكن القصص كلها بالقوة التي تبحث عنها لدى مؤلف "نوبلي" لكن لكل منها ر...more
الكتاب يحتوي على 70 قصة قصيرة يترواح طول كل منها مابين صفحة إلى 7 صفحات تقريباً. القصص كثيرة ومتنوعة وسبب إقتنائي لهذا الكتاب هو أني في الفترة الأخيرة بدأت أنجذب نحو الكتب التي تحتوي على عدد كبير من القصص القصيرة, لأن كل قصة بالنسبة لي تعتبر مفاجأة أنتظرها على أحر من الجمر, على عكس الرواية الكاملة التي سأعيش معها وحدها من بداية قراءتي لنهايتها, خصوصا إذا بدأت الرواية تصبح مملة من المنتصف فسيصعب علي إنهاءها.
هذا الكتاب جيد, ليس بالممتاز وليس بالسيء. فهو يحمل عدد قليل (مقارنةً بالعدد الكلي) من القص...more
هذا الكتاب جيد, ليس بالممتاز وليس بالسيء. فهو يحمل عدد قليل (مقارنةً بالعدد الكلي) من القص...more
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Compre y comencé a leer este libro hace años, y por una mala costumbre que tengo, quedo guardado en el librero con separador.
Durante la mudanza lo re-encontré (junto con otros) y ayer me decidí a terminarlo.
Me gusta la sensación que me deja leer a los japoneses. Este en especial consta de cortas historias que tengo la impresión de que no es suficiente con leerías una vez. Cuando Agus leyó un cuento, él tuvo una interpretación distinta a la mía, pero creo que eso es culpa mía que me enfoco en t...more
Durante la mudanza lo re-encontré (junto con otros) y ayer me decidí a terminarlo.
Me gusta la sensación que me deja leer a los japoneses. Este en especial consta de cortas historias que tengo la impresión de que no es suficiente con leerías una vez. Cuando Agus leyó un cuento, él tuvo una interpretación distinta a la mía, pero creo que eso es culpa mía que me enfoco en t...more
Yasunari Kawabata's Palm-of-the-Hand Stories is a collection of very short stories Kawabata wrote throughout his career, in which he claimed the essence of his art was to be found. Ephemeral and fantastical while grounded in the everyday, these stories reveal Kawabata's interest in the miniature and his success at distilling a story into its very essence, carefully crafting what is there and subtly hinting at what is not.
Recommended by Crystal, Powells.com
Recommended by Crystal, Powells.com
كتاب أكثر من جيد ... وقصة حياة المؤلف تثير كثيرا من التساؤلات في نفسي ... على كل حال هي مجرد نافذة على الأدب الياباني الذي له قليل من الجمهور في عالمنا العربي بشكل عام... وأنا من محبي القصة القصيرة لأن الروايات وكتابها أصبحوا يطيلونها من دون طائل أو هدف قصصي وكأنها لتعبئة صفحات أو كأن كتابة صفحتين ملهمتين شيء معيب ... سبعين قصة في مائتين وخمسين صفحة حالات أنسانية جميلة تدعوك للتأمل حتى في المرحاض
There are many things that I enjoyed about this book. The first reading stories that take place in cities and areas of Japan that I have been lucky enough to visit. I felt I was reliving my trip to that beautiful country. To me these short stories had a strong zen feeling, he takes a simple almost unimportant event and with limpidity in his writing he transports the Westerner to an ancient and mysterious land.
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Roughly 20 out of the 70 stories are excellent. Some of the others of difficult to understand, strange, or discordant, perhaps because of the translation. "The grasshopper and the bell cricket" and "up in the tree" are particular favorites of mine. If you want a laugh read "lavatory buddhahood". "Gleanings from snow country", which is the longest of the stories in the book, is also good if you want a taste of Kawabata's wonderful novel "Snow Country"
Even though I would say that Kawabata is pretty much my favourite Japanese author, I can't say that I enjoyed these (extremely) short stories. Mainly, they left me puzzled. However, I think that this could be attributed to my failure to appreciate these tiny flashes of stories.
A very strange book. Two-thirds or more of these very tiny stories (like Haiku) were written between 1923 and 1935. Then 15 between 1944 and 1964, and one from 1972. We have heard of "occasional" writings; perhaps these need to be called "momentary" writings....
A collection of this sort will likely be, perhaps inevitably, uneven. Yet this collection certainly contain some, quite a few Kawabata masterpieces. I preferred the earlier stories, those from the early 20's, and some of the Postwar stori...more
A collection of this sort will likely be, perhaps inevitably, uneven. Yet this collection certainly contain some, quite a few Kawabata masterpieces. I preferred the earlier stories, those from the early 20's, and some of the Postwar stori...more
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Week of December 16, 2010 - December 22, 2010
What the Blind Can See
"Household" by Yasunari Kawabata, translated by Lane Dunlop and J. Martin Holman, performed by Fionnula Flanagan
From: Palm-of-the-Hand Stories (North Point Press)
What the Blind Can See
"Household" by Yasunari Kawabata, translated by Lane Dunlop and J. Martin Holman, performed by Fionnula Flanagan
From: Palm-of-the-Hand Stories (North Point Press)
These are amazing stories. Most are less than 2 pages long and it's fascinating to see how Kawabata honed his storytelling skills over the years. These stories give me the same feeling as looking at Impressionist paintings.
Flawless, perfect 2-3-pages-long stories. It completely surprised me. Much modern than one might expect from Kawabata's reputation.
would have given three stars but the thought about it again. there were some really beautiful and touching stories in this book, so i decided to give it four stars.
Another one of those books that inspired me. Such excellent brevity. Sad beautiful stories.
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Yasunari Kawabata (川端 康成) was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and are still widely read.
More about Yasunari Kawabata...
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“The true joy of a moonlit night is something we no longer understand. Only the men of old, when there were no lights, could understand the true joy of a moonlit night.”
—
15 people liked it
“Long accustomed to a life of self-indulgent solitude, he began to yearn for the beauty of giving himself to others. The nobility of the word 'sacrifice' became clear to him. He took satisfaction in the feeling of his own littleness as a single seed whose purpose was to carry forward from the past into the future the life of the species called humanity. He even sympathized with the thought that the human species, together with the various kinds of minerals and plants, was no more than a small pillar that helped support a single vast organism adrift in the cosmos-- and with the thought that it was no more precious than the other animals and plants.”
—
5 people liked it
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