Kawabata, Yasunari (Vol. 9) - Kawabata, Yasunari 1899–1972
Kawabata, Yasunari 1899–1972
Kawabata, a novelist, short story writer, and critic, was the first Japanese author to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Numerous deaths in his family left Kawabata virtually alone at a young age and impressed upon him the loneliness and impermanence of life, a view often reflected in his work. He was respected not only as an author but as a patron of younger Japanese writers such as Yukio Mishima. (See also CLC, Vols. 2, 5, and Contemporary Authors, obituary, Vols. 33-36, rev. ed.)
In [House of the Sleeping Beauties], Kawabata poignantly explores the intimate thoughts of an old man searching for the meaning of his existence. In his sensual yearnings, erotic fancies, and subtle attempts at self-deception Eguchi probes back to the source of life. But the quest is a failure; he ends a lonely old man, chilled with the knowledge of his aloneness.
The novel is at once traditional, from one...
[The entire page is 9674 words long]
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