![]() ![]() Half of Komako's lines are here saying "X actually, not-X No wait, X" and Shimamura pondering on his shallowness. The characters are static, the setting isn't explored, and surprising for a novella the protagonist spends most of his narration time idly wandering from nonevent to nonevent. There's nothing in the book that's culturally untranslatable- even with no knowledge of Japan the reader picks up what a geisha is and gets that the unnamed town is a nowhere place in the country used as a spa- and yet the tone, the way the book is communicated behind these small vignettes, is trapped inescapably to Japan. However, outside of the zeitgeist of early 20th century Japan and it's literary scene, the work does not favor an international audience. I appreciate that, and it's a nice change of pace stylistically. ![]() It feels like Kawabata is strongly influenced by the haiku style of hiding your message behind deeper layers of meaning and revealing it only by light hints. The book touches very lightly on the lives and setting, which is a deliberate style choice. The characters feel very underdeveloped and the plot is nonexistant- Shimamura is a rich idler and Komako is a "geisha" in a remote village, where she's practically call girl by another name. ![]()
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