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Title: Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata, Howard S. Hibbett ISBN: 0-679-76105-5 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 January, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The complex world of human relationships.
Comment: Human relationships are anything but predictable. In 'Beauty and Sadness' Kawabata melds scenes of ardent love and revenge with subtle grace. He writes a story of love which is unpredictable and believable. The sound of the New Year bells chime with a mans longing to relive a part of his past. In his journey to do so he finds that the past cannot be revived. Instead he is thrown into a new episode which is completely out of his control. Written with the poetic beauty Kawabata is famous for 'Beauty and Sadness' is indeed the theme of love. A woderful read for people interested in the complexity of the human relationship.
Rating: 3
Summary: Good, Certainly, But Not Great
Comment: While I was impressed and intrigued by this novel, it does not possess the lyrical power I had expected and hoped for. This is especially true when compared to the works of Mishima, though Kawabata does avoid the excessive philosophical musings that can bog down even Mishima's best work. Also, one is not exhausted after reading Kawabata, as one can be after reading Mishima, who can be overly intense. I strongly suspect that my disappointment with Beauty and Sadness stems primarily from the translation -- there are moments of stiltedness, moments that just don't work. Part of the problem must rest with Kawabata, however. Hemingway said that a writer can leave anything he wants out of a story, if he knows what that "anything" is; if he leaves something out because he doesn't know what it is, there'll be holes in the story. There are holes in Beauty and Sadness, which I suspect would have worked more effectively as a tightly written short story. But Kawabata has all my respect, and more Americans should read him and other Japanese writers -- it makes for a refreshing change from the bloated, overwrought, Oprah Winfrey-approved, man-beats-woman nonsense so many of us immerse ourselves in so that we can convince ourselves we're readers and tell our friends that we've read the "latest."
Rating: 5
Summary: Beauty and Sadness
Comment: I love this book, I re-read this book in three different languages, and i'm reading it again the fourth times.
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Title: Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata, Edward G. Seidensticker, Edward Seidensticker ISBN: 0679761047 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 January, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata, Edward G. Seidensticker ISBN: 0679762655 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 December, 1996 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: First Snow on Fuji by Yasunari Kawabata, Michael Emmerich ISBN: 1582431051 Publisher: Counterpoint Press Pub. Date: 10 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata, Edward G. Seidensticker, Edward Seidensticker ISBN: 0679762647 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 June, 1996 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Palm-Of-The-Hand Stories by Yasunari Kawabata, Lane Dunlop, J. Martin Holman ISBN: 0865474125 Publisher: North Point Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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