Kawabata Yasunari (Vol. 5) | Kawabata Yasunari 1899–1972
Kawabata Yasunari 1899–1972
Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short story writer, the winner of most of Japan's literary awards and, in 1968, the Nobel Prize for Literature. He is widely read in the West, where his novels Snow Country and The Master of Go are particularly popular and his elegant and simple prose style is much admired. (See also obituary, Contemporary Authors, Vols. 33-36.)
Thousand Cranes would certainly be a hot contender for the No-tell Prize, since the most attentive reader, and the most prurient, will be hard put to know what exactly is going on at times. The 'story' concerns the relations of a young man with two of his late father's mistresses—but these crude European terms are probably quite inapt here, 'relations' and 'mistresses' in especial!—and with the legitimate daughter of one of those old mistresses. Where the book comes alive is when the characters are talking about tea-ceremony...
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