First Snow on Fuji by Yasunari Kawabata and One Down, Another Started

My first thought after finishing First Snow on Fuji is that I think I'd like to try one of Yasunari Kawabata's novels. Like the other two books that I've read for the Japanese Reading Challenge, the language in this book was beautiful. Kawabata had a gift for capturing the fragility of human relationships and explores that in this collection of short stories. I thought that all of the stories were very well written, some I liked better than others, but I wanted more...as I so often do with short stories. Maybe I'm just not a short story guy, or maybe I'm reading the wrong authors. There are some authors that can deliver a short story perfectly for me and in fact, there were a few in this collection that worked perfectly for me. But the more I dive into short stories, the more I find that it's a true art form, to write a satisfying tale, a moral tale, a voyage, whatever the author sets to do, in so few pages.

My favorite of the stories in this collection was the first, titled This Country, That Country. It's the story of a young woman who reads a column in a local paper that talks about extravagant goings on in other countries (mostly European countries) and she reads an article about spouse swapping. She tucks the paper away after deciding not to show the article to her husband, a man who she is comfortable with and has a good life with, but there's no true passion. Her neighbors next door seem to have the perfect marriage and her neighbor's husband seems to be the perfect man. Her thoughts wander to what life would be life in another situation.

Another great story in the collection was Nature, which begins "To begin by saying that I heard the life story of a traveling actor at a spa is rather an old-fashioned narrative technique, but then...perhaps the story itself is old-fashioned..." And it is. I loved this story. It's the story of a man who has come to visit a spa where his deceased friend who was a writer used to stay. He finds there is an actor staying in the room where his friend used to always stay and goes to meet with him one night. They spend the night talking and the actor tells quite an interesting story of his past.

Silence was the last story that really stuck out to me. This was the story of an author who is now paralyzed, unable to write or speak. The narrator of the story goes to visit him, contemplating why he chooses not to use what little use he has left of his left hand. He could after all communicate, writing the Japanese characters of W for Water or T for Tea, but instead, he chooses to live out the rest of his days in silence. This was a beautifully contemplative piece and I really enjoyed it.

So as you can see, this one definitely had it's high points, but some of the other stories just didn't do it for me, or I just wanted a little more. But I'm glad I read this book. And with the end of this one, I'm done the Japanese Literature Challenge! My books read were:

The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
First Snow on Fuji by Yasunari Kawabata

I'd like to also fit in Yukio Mishima's Confessions of a Mask by the end of the month! Thanks again to Bellezza :) You rock!!!

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So, I've finished one challenge, why not add another to the list! Becky's hosting another great challenge. How she manages to participate in and host all these challenges is beyond me. This one is the Margaret A. Edwards Reading Challenge and the challenge is to read 3-5 books between February 1st and June 1st by winners of the Margaret A. Edwards award. The award is given each year to an author who makes a lasting contribution in the field of young adult literature and this year it was given to Orson Scott Card!!! Guess who one of my authors will be? ;) So here's my list:

1. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (Deslily's review here) I can see that smile Pat ;)
2. Gifts by Ursula K. LeGuin
3. Something by Orson Scott Card