1 to 2 of 2
Review Date: 7/26/2005
Taken from the back cover.
The Sound of the Mountain is one of Yasunari Kawabatas most important works. Its quality is luminous and intense; its concern is with the anxieties and desires of an old man, Shingo who hears the sound of the mountain the faint rumble in the hills that is a muffled hint of unknown occurrences and a foreboding of death. And his emotions the affection (perhaps even sexual desire) he feels for his daughter-in-law, the increasing tensions of his relations with his wife, son, and daughter are also muffled, indistinct, subtle, yet disturbingly powerful. The events of the novel are real and immediate, yet throughout they are touched and unified by an almost dreamlike symbolism. The resulting whole is a remarkable expression of the unique talents of this great writer, a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968.
The Sound of the Mountain is one of Yasunari Kawabatas most important works. Its quality is luminous and intense; its concern is with the anxieties and desires of an old man, Shingo who hears the sound of the mountain the faint rumble in the hills that is a muffled hint of unknown occurrences and a foreboding of death. And his emotions the affection (perhaps even sexual desire) he feels for his daughter-in-law, the increasing tensions of his relations with his wife, son, and daughter are also muffled, indistinct, subtle, yet disturbingly powerful. The events of the novel are real and immediate, yet throughout they are touched and unified by an almost dreamlike symbolism. The resulting whole is a remarkable expression of the unique talents of this great writer, a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968.
Wind and Stone: A Novel (Rock Spring Collection of Japanese Literature)
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
1
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
1
Review Date: 7/26/2005
Taken from the back cover.
This novel tells the story of Kase, a designer of traditional Japanese gardens, and Mizue, the wife of Kases client. At first, Kase and Mizue each act according to their assigned roles, but Mizue, haunted by a devastating personal loss and attracted by the remarkable sexual energy of Kases garden design, grows increasingly uneasy. Finally she and Kase begin an affair, and as Mizue wakens to a new sensuality and desire, her carefully structured home life begins to crumble. Author Masaaki Tachihara explores the psychology of human passion in an oblique language filled with references to Japanese garden art and aesthetic values. In the landscape of the garden we see base urges given physical form, seductions crafted into the tangles of branches and the colors of blossoms, and the intransigence of a stone. This is a disturbing and alluring work.
This novel tells the story of Kase, a designer of traditional Japanese gardens, and Mizue, the wife of Kases client. At first, Kase and Mizue each act according to their assigned roles, but Mizue, haunted by a devastating personal loss and attracted by the remarkable sexual energy of Kases garden design, grows increasingly uneasy. Finally she and Kase begin an affair, and as Mizue wakens to a new sensuality and desire, her carefully structured home life begins to crumble. Author Masaaki Tachihara explores the psychology of human passion in an oblique language filled with references to Japanese garden art and aesthetic values. In the landscape of the garden we see base urges given physical form, seductions crafted into the tangles of branches and the colors of blossoms, and the intransigence of a stone. This is a disturbing and alluring work.
1 to 2 of 2
