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A review by sky_reaper
The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata
5.0
Subtle and graceful, the metaphors of Yasunari Kawabata seem to be a brush dipped in all the wonderful colors of nature.
Shingo's life isn't smooth and easy in his retirement year. With the cumbersome issues and concerns of his children and in-laws, the passing of his friends and acquaintances, and with his concern towards his memory and impending death, everything unfolds in its quiet solicitude.
The novel's theme reminded me of Japanese aesthetic wabi-sabi, exemplified by the moments such as flower and tree watching; listening to the sound of birds and the mountain; autumn leaves and haiku. It's a difficult concept to grasp with just those instances, but the entirety of the novel seem to work in this underlying philosophical theme: everything is imperfect, and it all comes to end, but in it lies beauty. And the last part as the perfect complementary metaphor β the golden mist of snow β for kintsugi.
It is also a mixture of foreboding dreams and reality, while the overall mood is somber and brooding as the author brushes on the different instances and reflections of death and responsibility. There are different layers in the novel that works to give each a fleeting stroke of what existence seem to be like for an aging man living in a postwar Japan.
What more can I say? I think this is the most heartbreaking line I've read in the book, when Shingo casually talk about the lotus seeds he read in the newspaper:
'A thousand years or fifty thousand, a lotus seeds lives a long time. Almost an eternity, when you compare it with a human life, β¦it would be good to lie in the ground a thousand years or two without dying.'
'Lie in the ground!', Kikuko half muttered the words.
'Not in a grave. And not dying. Just resting. If it were possible just to rest in the ground β you would wake up after fifty thousand years and find all your own problems settled and the problems of the world, and you would be in paradise.'
I think what makes Kawabata a successful writer is the universality of his theme and the subtlety of emotions that seemed to be detached in the overall changing setting of his characters.
Shingo's life isn't smooth and easy in his retirement year. With the cumbersome issues and concerns of his children and in-laws, the passing of his friends and acquaintances, and with his concern towards his memory and impending death, everything unfolds in its quiet solicitude.
The novel's theme reminded me of Japanese aesthetic wabi-sabi, exemplified by the moments such as flower and tree watching; listening to the sound of birds and the mountain; autumn leaves and haiku. It's a difficult concept to grasp with just those instances, but the entirety of the novel seem to work in this underlying philosophical theme: everything is imperfect, and it all comes to end, but in it lies beauty. And the last part as the perfect complementary metaphor β the golden mist of snow β for kintsugi.
It is also a mixture of foreboding dreams and reality, while the overall mood is somber and brooding as the author brushes on the different instances and reflections of death and responsibility. There are different layers in the novel that works to give each a fleeting stroke of what existence seem to be like for an aging man living in a postwar Japan.
What more can I say? I think this is the most heartbreaking line I've read in the book, when Shingo casually talk about the lotus seeds he read in the newspaper:
'A thousand years or fifty thousand, a lotus seeds lives a long time. Almost an eternity, when you compare it with a human life, β¦it would be good to lie in the ground a thousand years or two without dying.'
'Lie in the ground!', Kikuko half muttered the words.
'Not in a grave. And not dying. Just resting. If it were possible just to rest in the ground β you would wake up after fifty thousand years and find all your own problems settled and the problems of the world, and you would be in paradise.'
I think what makes Kawabata a successful writer is the universality of his theme and the subtlety of emotions that seemed to be detached in the overall changing setting of his characters.