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arj_51's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Kawabata's writing style is hypnotic and dreamlike. He has such an incredible command of time, as it feels time has frozen while the characters are talking. Very evocative and gorgeous.
Content Warnings
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, and Miscarriage
pseudoliterature's review
emotional
informative
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
There was something missing in this novel, i blame it to the fact that i read the version in Spanish, that was itself a translation from the English translation. Being a translator myself i know how delicate language is, and these two filters are just interpretations of the original story, so of course there is something missing.
The story itself it is difficult to review, i can recognize its historical significance, being one of the last works of these name in Japanese literary history, Kawabata won a novel prize after all. However, I'm not very keen on stories about the abuse of minors being framed as romantic, even when the relationship was challenged in the text, in the same line he framed her to be his first love, he also felt the guilt of her age, she was 16 and he in his thirties with a wife and a child.
I couldn't read it as a love story, I felt tense the whole time. The author's descriptions and ambiance can only do so much when the story we are following causes so much discomfort from a contemporary reading.
I can't recommend this book, I can't talk about the positives without having to highlight and remark all the negatives first. I can't even feel happy about the lesbian relationship because of how it is framed, but people are complicated and relationships can become toxic, but then framing these women as crazy and revenge thirsty is another thing. The relationships are complicated, and it is something i enjoyed, complex characters that changed over time, that became something more than the tragic past, but that past is so hunting to you as an audience, which is again one of the intentional points the novel was trying to make. I just wished the criticism within the story to the pedophilic relationship was a little bit louder, so we know it was never a love story from the point of view of Otoko, but are more often than not stuck in the other point of view.
You can make a case for a more nuance reading, remark how the story itself calls out the adultery of Oki and the "relationship" (and pregnancy) of the minor, how we have Otoko's point of view and we see how much this experience with Oki affected her, and still affects her twenty years later, how she doesn't see it as the romantic thing he describes in his POV, in his book, how this thing affected his wife and children for years and years, until the present. But we are trapped in the obliviousness of the writer, the protagonist, the one that is framing the story, it leaves a bitter taste in all of the rest of the things this book is doing, or at least trying to do.
Depending on how you read it, on how it is presented to you is how much you are going to enjoy it, to get something from it. I knew nothing going in, and I was confronted by its bitterness, mouthful, before I could even focus on the good points, on the complexity of the book as a whole.
It is getting a mid review from my part, because my experience was sour. If given the time and with a long conversation before hand, and maybe after too, this could be someone's favourite, this could be revealing and wonderful. Could be.
The story itself it is difficult to review, i can recognize its historical significance, being one of the last works of these name in Japanese literary history, Kawabata won a novel prize after all. However, I'm not very keen on stories about the abuse of minors being framed as romantic, even when the relationship was challenged in the text, in the same line he framed her to be his first love, he also felt the guilt of her age, she was 16 and he in his thirties with a wife and a child.
I couldn't read it as a love story, I felt tense the whole time. The author's descriptions and ambiance can only do so much when the story we are following causes so much discomfort from a contemporary reading.
I can't recommend this book, I can't talk about the positives without having to highlight and remark all the negatives first. I can't even feel happy about the lesbian relationship because of how it is framed, but people are complicated and relationships can become toxic, but then framing these women as crazy and revenge thirsty is another thing. The relationships are complicated, and it is something i enjoyed, complex characters that changed over time, that became something more than the tragic past, but that past is so hunting to you as an audience, which is again one of the intentional points the novel was trying to make. I just wished the criticism within the story to the pedophilic relationship was a little bit louder, so we know it was never a love story from the point of view of Otoko, but are more often than not stuck in the other point of view.
You can make a case for a more nuance reading, remark how the story itself calls out the adultery of Oki and the "relationship" (and pregnancy) of the minor, how we have Otoko's point of view and we see how much this experience with Oki affected her, and still affects her twenty years later, how she doesn't see it as the romantic thing he describes in his POV, in his book, how this thing affected his wife and children for years and years, until the present. But we are trapped in the obliviousness of the writer, the protagonist, the one that is framing the story, it leaves a bitter taste in all of the rest of the things this book is doing, or at least trying to do.
Depending on how you read it, on how it is presented to you is how much you are going to enjoy it, to get something from it. I knew nothing going in, and I was confronted by its bitterness, mouthful, before I could even focus on the good points, on the complexity of the book as a whole.
It is getting a mid review from my part, because my experience was sour. If given the time and with a long conversation before hand, and maybe after too, this could be someone's favourite, this could be revealing and wonderful. Could be.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abortion, Child death, and Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, and Emotional abuse
misskeesa's review
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, and Death
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