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 Visitors Recommend
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 The Dancing Girl of Izu and Other Stories
(Izu no odoriko)
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This book is very beautiful and frail.
/Satoko, 20, Japan |
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House of Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories
(Nemureru bijo) |
'House of the Sleeping Beauties' is a masterpiece.
The emotions and thoughts of old Eguchi were moving because
they are truthful. Men and women, love and sex, no-love
and sex, love and no-sex, all aspects of relationships
seem to knit together and dye this Japanese picture with
a tragic color, but the whole story is simply beautiful, so
beautiful, so pure. I recommend this book and 'Palm-of-the-hand
Stories' by the same author.
/Thanh Than, 18, United States |
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Kyoto |
This beautiful
book comes with great sensitivity and power
of suggestion. The story of two sisters who
are kept away from each other, their reckoning
and mutual feelings, combined with great descriptions
of Kyoto traditions and landscapes, make a masterpiece.
In this book, the main character is, although,
the city, the strange city of Kyoto. Astonishing!
/Ricardo Rodrigues, 19, Portugal |
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Palm-of-the-Hand Stories |
In these very short stories by Kawabata, entire live stories are told in the shortest of moments. They show how truthfully one's entire being can be evinced in the most fleeting of glimpses, of experiences, which change one's life irrevocably everthereafter. One need think only of the great speech of Citizen Kane of the girl in the white dress: this could have been taken directly from a palm-of-the-hand story by Kawabata. And in the spirit of Kawabata, perhaps the best thing that can be said about these stories is that, while any of them can be read in a single sitting - indeed, in five minutes waiting in a doctor's office, or on a train, or just before waking - they, as they do for the characters within them, can stay with you for the rest of your life. These are stories that should not be missed by anyone who truly loves the unequivocable experience of reading.
/Marc-David Jacobs, 21, United States
Kawabata writes with a simple
eloquence bordering on poetic. These are extremely short tales
that convey huge meaning. They stay with you long after being
read. A truly great work by a truly great artist.
/Matt, 29, United States |
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The Sound of the Mountain |
Delightfully poetic, lovingly suggestive. Kawabata is one novelist who give the readers adequate clues to form their conclusions.
/Desmond Ang, 34, Singapore |
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Thousand Cranes
(Senbarazu) |
In less than 150 pages, Mr Kawabata said all he needed to say about human emotions. And he knew what should be said and what should be left unsaid. Right after reading this book, I read Marilynne Robinson's 'Housekeeping'. 'Thousand Cranes' is like an ikebana arrangement: sparse, balanced with taut & fluid lines all at once, satisfyingly enough. 'Housekeeping' feels to me like a vase brimming with flowers from a well-tended garden. To me they are like the flute and the harp : a good foile for one another.
/Julia Yoong, Malaysia |
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