A rather beautifully written novel that makes use of natural imagery from the perspective of an aging grandfather witnessing his family dynamics develop. Between the affair of his son and divorce of his daughter, he weighs his responsibility as a parent of now adults. This, coupled with his no longer affectionate marriage, frequent death of friends, and physical deteoriation, gives insight to a elderly view. All this occurs with a backdrop of coping with war in Japan. Where this novel lacks is coming from a slightly particular experience that is not entirely entertaining.

This book is one of the finest, most elegant books I have ever read. While the plot seems still at times, the novel itself is a window into the human experience. The prose is refined, thanks, in part, to the translator Edward Seidensticker. When reading, we do not feel the constraints in time throughout this novel. There is no mention of the date, or the passage of time, except for when past events in the book are cited as "last autumn," for example. I am sad that I've finished this book, but now I can dive deeper into the treasure that is Japanese literature.

Một câu chuyện cứ đều đều, chả có cao trào, tả cảnh cũng dửng dưng mà đọc xong thấy lòng buồn vô hạn. Một tác giả giỏi là người có thể đặt bút viết linh tinh vài dòng mà vẫn khiến độc giả không thể rời mắt nổi. Và đây là một câu chuyện kì lạ như thế.

For the first time I don’t feel like putting any rating. Because sometimes you read books not the right time and you just don’t get it. 🤷🏻‍♀️
The characters remained for me faceless and without any distinction. I usually will connect to one or two characters and that makes the book interesting to me. While reading this book it was very hard for me to remember who was who, and it isn’t because the characters had Japanese names, I have read a lot from different Japanese authors and I could remember the names. In this book the characters were merged, no personality, nothing. Just people.
I don’t even remember how the book started. And the way it ended I was like “and?🤔” And I think the whole time I was wondering what the author is trying to tell me. My previous book was so intense, full of surprises that I was waiting on something grand and vivid, but no, that did NOT happen.
I was discussing this book with my sister (she has recommended this book to me) and she said that sometimes books like this show a simple life. Most people don’t have over the top life, 99% don’t experience “Romeo and Juliet” type of love. We wake up, live, go to job, have some sort of relationship, we will marry, have kids and die. And maybe people you will live with won’t much care about you. And I agree with her, that this book shows a typical person, living a typical life.
The book was overall melancholic.
I will read something else from Kawabata.
I think this book isn’t for everyone, so I don’t know if I will recommend this book or not.

I truly enjoyed the variety of emotions I experienced during reading. From anger to empathy and inner peace

Some passages I completely loved. Others were a little too long. Maybe it is because I'm not a grandfather, so its hard for me to relate to the main character. Still all in all a great book about the relationships between family members and the struggle of a person to improve them.