Snow Country in Read a book from each country

Mar 03, 2012 J rated it really liked it

Shelves: japanese-literature

Kawabata crafts these really lovely, impressionistic scenes that unroll in a very staccato way. I hate to use such a cheap comparison as calling them haiku-like, but they do in fact seem very minimal and poised with tiny, precisely chosen natural details which evoke the transient, gentle sorrows of existence. I was quite surprised by the ending, which takes things to a whole other dimension of darkly weird, cosmic ruin. Sort of like a zen H.P. Lovecraft. That last sentence is quite the celestial ...more

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May 26, 2010 Jimmy rated it it was ok

Shelves: year-1940s, poc, male, novel, unpopular-opinion, japan

I had so many problems reading this book. Just basic comprehension stuff that I was not expecting from such simple prose. And I'm not sure the fault lies with me, or with the book, or with the translation. Maybe it's something I'm missing culturally. The dynamics between the characters is weird, and would just shift with no warning, and no lead-up. Conversations would seem random, nonsensical, escalate suddenly without reason. The woman keeps saying she'll leave, but she doesn't, she's still the I had so many problems reading this book. Just basic comprehension stuff that I was not expecting from such simple prose. And I'm not sure the fault lies with me, or with the book, or with the translation. Maybe it's something I'm missing culturally. The dynamics between the characters is weird, and would just shift with no warning, and no lead-up. Conversations would seem random, nonsensical, escalate suddenly without reason. The woman keeps saying she'll leave, but she doesn't, she's still there right now! The main characters will be rushing to save people from a fire, but then as they're rushing there they stop to admire the milky way! Then the woman throws herself at the guy in desperation once again. Oh wait, are they still rushing to the fire? Yes! and they resume, but such strange behavior remains unexplained. Maybe I'm reading a different book than other people (this book gets so much praise!), but I just didn't get it.

On top of all that, the characters are all despicable and frustratingly enigmatic and I don't get their motivations. The main character is a rich idler with too much time on his hands. He goes to visit this geisha in the titular snow country several times... oh but wait, he's also married with kids, which he casually mentions once or twice, then shrugs it off. He keeps obsessing over the physical characteristics of these women he fetishizes (he loves describing Komako as "clean" but I don't really know what he means by this) but doesn't really get to know. It's pretty creepy actually, and he made me feel uncomfortable. People describe this book as a romance, but to me there is nothing romantic about it. We don't get to know Komako or Yoko, they both act mysteriously and nonsensically, and our narrator doesn't try to delve deeper than the surface.

On the positive side, some of the imagery was nice. And when the writing stays on the poetic landscapes, it is pretty good. He obsesses about mirrors and reflections on a train window for many pages, but the imagery is so cinematic that it kinda made me want to rewatch Yi Yi or 2046 or something instead of just reading about such images. ...more

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Mar 29, 2022 martin rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, asian-lit

One of those translated novels where I regret that my lack of linguistic and cultural knowledge makes it impossible to read the original text, not because the kindle edition’s translation is bad, in fact it’s excellent (except from an odd obsession with putting mountain trousers in English with inverted commas), but because there are passages where meaning and beauty are unavoidably weaker in translation. Especially so here in descriptive passages ending in a stunning haiku type contrast of ligh ...more

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Feb 01, 2025 Bonnie rated it it was ok

Shelves: classics, world-lit-asia

A classic of Japanese literature by a Nobel Prize winning author. Originally published in 1935-1937 (it was a serialized work), this is one of those typical "classics" where its about an aimless rich kid (here, a 30-something married father who inherited his fortune) who engages in a tepid "romance" with a beautiful woman who is nothing but a projection of the man's own feelings (in this case, a geisha in a snowy hot springs town).

The characters have no character, because they are ideas and not ...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Tracy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: for-work, a-reread

I want to write haikus.

And I need to research the idea that beauty is enhanced through its decaying.

I like when as I'm reading I have to ask myself, "What the...?"

Kudos if you note my review mimics the plot. ...more

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