Tag: yasunari kawabata

Dandelions by Yasunari Kawabata

A book I started a year or two ago but returned to recently. I started it afresh and it was a difficult reason for me. Not due to the subjects of mental health and relationships but how the book is structured as a conversation between a mother and her daughters boyfriend.

I expected more from the novel and it seemed to be disjointed and all over the place with the conversations, and it just ended abruptly, it was unfinished at the authors death but I don’t think it should have been published.

As a character I didn’t like Kuno and how he asserted himself to Ineko and her Mother, saying the mother is wrong to commit her to treatment and how marriage is the only way to fix her. Rubbed me up the wrong way.

I think a lot to do with the issues were the death of Ineko’s father and that was the trigger of her ailment. I also think that if the novel was finished the end may be that they both (Ineko & Kuno) are afflicted with mental health issues with him seeing a white rat and white dandelion. Possibly even the mother with her seeing a Sprite.

All in all I am glad to have read it but I wouldn’t come back to it.

Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata

This is a book I have read many, many times in the past, its a haunting novella focused around the Japanese tea ceremony and of a man who gets involved with his dead fathers mistress and the shadow of his fathers previous long term mistress hovers over him constantly. A very tragic novella and one where the past weighs heavily on the present.

Despite the bleakness of his works, I have yet to read a Yasunari Kawabata book that I did not like. His books are my gateway to Japanese literature in general. They are ones I come back to yearly especially this one and Snow Country. I do have five of his translated works yet to read, and I should get around to them soon. The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa, The Lake, The Old Capital, The Rainbow and Dandelions. I also want to read The Sound of the Mountain and The Master of Go again, having only read those once.

I notice this book is also newly re-published here (UK) as one of the 90 new Penguin Archive books. All short stories or novellas re-released with a beautiful minimalist new cover.

This makes it 10 books for the year so far, I was tempted to increase my years target to 50 but I think for now I will keep it at 25. I have plans for some longer books which I may get bogged down in.

Happy Easter.

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata

First book started and finished for 2025, a familiar favourite in Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata. I do usually start the year reading one of his books and last year I didn’t and had a sucky year of reading. So I decided this would be my first book of the year and I had forgot how beautiful it is. Something about his writing I really love and although his books are not happy books they do have an aura about them. I won’t make no plans but hopefully this year I revisit his books and read those I have not got around to yet as well as reacquaint myself with those I have already loved.

So that’s technically two in the bag already, more importantly 2 days of reading done. I keep track of my daily reading via my Kindle and the Kindle app. I keep a log of my reviews and progress on Goodreads, I have to say that I don’t like the new update to the Reading Challenge and the new goals or challenges they have provided. If its not broke don’t fix it, it wasn’t broke.

Happy New Year & One Book Done!

Happy New Year!

First post of the year and already a book in the bag, although I read 90% of it in December. I did finish it in 2025 so I’m counting it for this year.

The Most Interesting Book In The World by Edward Brooke-Hitching

Like the title suggests this a very interesting read, and a nice collection or miscellany of facts from all aspects like sports, science, literature, politics and general history. It reminded me of a series of books I loved about 15 years ago called Schotts Original Miscellany – books full of interesting, useful and useless information.

It was a fun book to get stuck into and get me out of my reading slump and start this year as I mean to go on.

I do intend to start my first complete read of the year tonight. Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata.