Yasunari Kawabata (川端 康成) was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and are still widely read today. Nobel Lecture: 1968 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prize...
Kawabata‘s delicate design of imagery is so captivating and beautiful. Some may say this is the male gaze or misogyny, but in my opinion, the narrative did not serve to develop a character or telling a love story, so the male gaze should be irrelevant in this case. The novel is about the silent war between flashing reality and still reflections of expectations. However, Instead of healing me, the book dragged me back to my own ongoing mouldy sorrows of years, the sorrow of things that don’t last, the 徒劳,the 无駄。
Every time I read Japanese literature, it makes me feel 女性として背筋が伸びる気分である。どこか世を捨てた雰囲気を醸し出す、虚無感というのか、そういう男と懸命に女として生きる女性のやり取り。どこか距離がある2人の関係像が雪国という背景にマッチした作品。
Don't know if it's the translation lost the meaning or I just don't get it. HOw come I can't get the feeling of the characters. Their dialogs are very difficult to grab the emotions under it.