Customer Reviews

Beauty and Sadness

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This was the seventh Yasunari Kawabata book that I have read and it is also my current favorite.

Kawabata weaves a wonderful story and its title describes it perfectly. The story begins with the writer Oki Toshio. In his younger days Oki had a love affair with a young girl named Otoko. Their affair produced a child, but unfortunately the child was born premature and died shortly after birth. The death of the child caused Otoko to suffer a nervous breakdown and she was put into a mental asylum. Her mother told Oki that Otoko would soon be better but it would probably be better if Oki did not see her again. Warp 20 or so years into the future. Oki decides to see Otoko again at New Years, so he hops a train to go see his ex lover. Otoko worried about Oki's arrival hires a couple of geisha to entertain them. Also her protoge Keiko is there. I believe Keiko to be the main character in the story.

Keiko is not only Otoko's student but her lover as well. Keiko is angered about how Oki treated Otoko so many years ago, and wants to seek revenge against her teacher's ex lover. Otoko still harbors a strong love for Oki but is not assured enough to keep Keiko from plotting against Oki. Keiko is extraordinarilly charming and beautiful, and although a lesbian she manipulates males very easily. She seduces Oki and his son Taichiro, the reader knows something bad is going to happen to Oki or one of his loved ones early on, and he or she just wonders how it will finally happen.

Another beautiful book by Kawabata. Few writers come close to his descriptions of landscapes or his very evocative writing of the human form. Very good book please read it.

This little novel, though economical in size and language, is a monument to the Japanese ideal of <<less is more>>. Kawabata's economical use of words by no means undercuts the concise imagery of his prose. At times, it is NOT what he has said or implied, but the empty spaces between his words that completely round out his thoughts. Much like a composer of music, attentive to each note and the silence in between, Kawabata's prose is highly musical and amazingly crafted. His eloquent, often delightful truths seem to bring the reader's attention to the essence of life, nature, and human nature. Though Kawabata won the Nobel prize for his literature, by no means would I consider his work pretentious, overly erudite, affected, or vain.... his writing exemplifies the clearest thoughts, the well turned phrase, a simplicity of characters and objectives but with the ease and elegance of learned man... a gentleman. This novel reminds me of an oriental landscape painting, some images are veiled in a mist, some easily discernable, some merely suggestive, all essential to the whole. It is beauty in the purest sense of the word... the only sadness was how quickly I devoured this short work and was hungry for more. So I read as many other of his works that I could.... you would not be displeased with this or any other of his works.

Kawabata's masterpiece. A story inexorably moving towards the tragic end, yet taking its time in doing so, exploring several side-issues and developing the protagonists' characters such that the outcome appears inevitable. Magically and poetically interwoven with Japanese literature, history and art, human psychology, longing, desire and ultimate betrayal, this is a one-of-a-kind novel that defies all attempts at categorization and in a manner true to all classics, effortlessly transcends the boundaries of time and space in which it was created.

Art needs fuel. Something does not come from nothing, and novelists and painters often draw from the wellspring of their own misery to create magnificence. Kawabata's final book, "Beauty and Sadness" explores these themes, of the interlinking of creativity and pain, and how artists use their own lives to make something grander.

Oki and Otoko are such artists, creating beauty from sadness. Their illicit and doomed love affair deeply wounded their souls, with the despair of their lost child lasting far longer than the brief time they spent together. Oki chronicles their story in his novel "A Sixteen Year Old Girl," and Otoko paints, continually seeking to exorcise her feelings and expressing them on canvas.

Alternately, Keiko and Taichiro create sadness from beauty. Oki's child, Taichiro, is drawn into a web of revenge woven by Otoko's lesbian lover and protege Keiko. Whereas Oki and Otoko have made an uneasy peace, Keiko refuses to let it rest, and wants to punish Oki by taking his child in the same way he took Otoko's.

Kawabata's skill at language portraiture is what makes this such a fine book, drawing the reader into the downward spiral of the character's lives. Anyone familiar with his writing knows where the path is going, but the skill of his craft tenders the sadness with beauty. It is a soulful journey, leaving one with a bitter taste and the reality of lost love.

Human relationships are anything but predictable. In 'Beauty and Sadness' Kawabata melds scenes of ardent love and revenge with subtle grace. He writes a story of love which is unpredictable and believable. The sound of the New Year bells chime with a mans longing to relive a part of his past. In his journey to do so he finds that the past cannot be revived. Instead he is thrown into a new episode which is completely out of his control. Written with the poetic beauty Kawabata is famous for 'Beauty and Sadness' is indeed the theme of love. A woderful read for people interested in the complexity of the human relationship.

I did not really know what to expect when I purchased this book. What I received was a piece of intense literature expressing the very agony one can experience when placed in extreme circumstances. Such experiences were a test, in particular, of the main character's wife's endurance. Because I study the Japanese language and lived in Japan, I had the opportunity, during that time, to observe how people interact within that society. This book truly shows how, whether American or Japanese, we are so much alike when our endurance is tested by circumstances. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. yonde kudasai! :)

Sadness & Beauty is I believe the last work Kawabatta completed. In it, he creates a world where everything is found to filled either w/ beauty or sadness, and towards the end, it seems that nothing can be beautiful without being sad, and that all the sad things in the world take on a beauty of their own. It's worth reading definitely, if there is a flaw, it's that the writing isn't as subtle, or implicit as some of his other works (but the comparison may be unfair, as his works are excellent).

i was really taken by this book. kawabata's ability to juxtapose japan's beauty and ancient culture with obsessive, destructive relationships is brilliant as ever. it was also amazingly erotic as mixture of cruelty and tenderness- reads in places like these people are on another planet.

Never been exposed to Japanese literature? Start here. Shorter than "The Tale of Genji", more affecting than "Snow Country", and just as poetic and moving as haiku or tanka poetry, this is a sizzling snapshot of eros gone wrong.

This is a fascinating and poignant novel about a doomed love affair between two characters, Oki and Otoko, that triggers fatal consequences for them both. In spite of his love, Oki has to leave Otaka after the death of their premature child and her breakdown. Twenty years after this event, he decides to meet her again, but this time, he has to meet Keiko too, Otoko's lover, who wants to seek revenge against him for having treated Otoko so badly many years ago.

This is a beautiful poetic story about passion and revenge and the complexity of human characters and relations.

Joyce Akesson, author of Love's Thrilling Dimensions, Majnun Leyla: Poems about Passion and The Invitation