Customer Reviews

The Sound of the Mountain

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Kawabata Yasunari won the Nobel Prize in 1968 and this novel above all his others, in my opinion, gives readers a chance to find out why. This is a classic of world literature, a work of genius. It is a finely-written tale of family, a simple story about an older man who is fond of his daughter-in-law, though his relations with his own two grown children, son and divorced daughter, are ambiguous. The story line, as in other Kawabata novels, is simple----there are no great events, no dramatic conclusions or climaxes. Natural phenomena---birds, animals, plants, and weather---play a large role in setting the mood and are used as symbols throughout. Far from being a recurring theme, the "sound of the mountain" is heard only once, on page 10, yet it and many other signs presage changes in life that follow a pattern unseen by human eyes.

The most amazing thing about THE SOUND OF THE MOUNTAIN is its capacity to summarize or to encapsulate family life, the compexity of family relationships. The only other book I know that comes close is Christina Stead's "The Man Who Loved Children", but that is a most verbose book whose characters verbalize nearly every emotion, or else the author does it for them. Kawabata's novel, however, succeeds in portraying family life equally well, if not better, with an absolute minimum of brush strokes. The indecision, the steps not taken, the regrets, the lost loves who return in dreams---all the myriad small events from which marriages and families are constructed---flow in a way that is both typically Japanese and universal. Shingo, the old man, was particularly kind towards Kikuko, his daughter in law, who "was for him a window looking out of a gloomy house." "Kindness towards her was a beam lighting isolation. It was a way of pampering himself, of bringing a touch of mellowness into his life." There is nothing so definite (or crass) as an out-and-out love affair between the two. Rather, there are solutions that are no solutions, compromises that have to paper over the disappointments. Life goes on and Hollywood is for children. What a brilliant book !

"The Sound of the Mountain" ("Yama no Oto") should have been a script for an Yasujiro Ozu film. All of the elements are here, with the kindly aged father Shingo who cannot gain his children's respect or love, ready to be portrayed by Chishu Ryu, and the lovely and loving daughter-in-law Kikuko, far more understanding than his real children, designed exactly for Setsuko Hara. The family who has left its rural home to uproot to Tokyo, following the jobs, losing their heart in the process. It really is too perfect.

Instead, the story is guided by the gentle hand of Yasunari Kawabata, who gives us the Japanese family, still disheveled by the end of the war and not quite certain what their roles are and dealing with their loss of identity. Confucian ideals, such as respect for the elder parents, have been swept aside in the post-Occupation reality. Shingo's son Shuichi has come back from the war an indifferent, cold-hearted man, flaunting his affairs with neither spite nor pleasure. Shingo's wife, Yasuko, is an ugly reminder of her sister, whom Shingo loved in is youth yet died. Their daughter Fusako is a burden, returning home with ugly children, her husband a waste and their marriage broken. The only pleasure in his life is the daughter-in-law Kikuko, whom his son wounds daily with his lack of caring.

In the Kawabata style, there is neither complaint nor surface rage at life's inconstant fortunes, but rather an acceptance and perseverance. Life is about moving forward, even at the advanced age of Shingo and Yasuko, who take their burdens as they come. Shingo is the main character, and so this is a book of old age, of looking back at life's mistakes and longing for fading pleasures. "The Sound of the Mountain" is a brilliant, cherishable book, one that captivated and moved me.

Interestingly enough, "The Sound of the Mountain" was eventually made into a movie, and while Ozu didn't get to direct, Setsuko Hara did get the part of Kikuko. Someone else must have had the same idea.

A haunting, evocative novel of family life in the immediate aftermath of the second world war. Shingo, the grandfather of the family, describes the relationships between his children and their partners, interwoven with flashbacks of his own early life. The disharmony of their lives is overwritten with a sense of Shingo's personal unfulfillment and unrequited love for the long dead sister of his wife. A constant theme of the novel is the decline in the powers of Shingo as head of the family and his inability to shape the destiny of his children as the story unfolds. This is a beautifully written book, rich in the culture of Japan which maintains a sense of melancholy throughout yet accurately reflects the mundane nature of day to day family existence. A highly recommended, gentle read.

I love Japanese literature. Unlike American writers - who overdo both their descriptions and their passions - Japanese writers, especially Kawabata, demonstrate taste. Like the beautiful, small cherry blossom, Kawabata's book is exquisite in its understatement. Only in Japanese literature could you have a father-in-law be completely in love with his daughter-in-law and not have the entire thing reduced to some graphic affair. This story is quietly profound. American readers who are in for action or blatant romance will not enjoy it, but if you are a reader who likes a book that makes you recognize your own silent yearnings - then this is the book for you. But I warn you, you will need to read it at least twice to really get it. Since the underlying theme of this novel is the dwindling of life, I recommend reading this novel in the fall or when you are feeling your own body failing.

This is arguably one of Kawabata's best works. After reading and rereading it over many years, my admiration for Kawabata as a writer only increases. There is something so comforting about the domesticity in this book, despite any problems in the domestic landscape. The style of the book and the writing is pure genius. It captures the essence of the lives it portrays like poetic prose. There is zen in the simplicity and the structure of this book. It makes you want to get up and move to Japan, or at least visit. It makes you want to learn Japanese so that you can read this beautiful writing in the original, even though the Sidensticker translation is great in itself. I'm still thinking about what the sound of the mountain could be. Kawabata is the apex of world literature, and this book is very highly recommended.

Written by Nobel-prize winning author Y. Kawabata, "The Sound of the Mountain" is a stunning and complex novel about the family life of Ogata Shingo. Shingo, head of the household, is deeply troubled by the moral decay of his children's families. Shuichi, his son, is married to Kikuko, but carries on an affair for a year, which results in a....... child by his lover and an abortion by his wife. Fusako, Shingo's daughter, separates and later divorces her drug-addicted husband to live with her two young children at her parents' house. Both of Shingo's children disrespect him and think little of him because of his absent-mindedness. These periods of thoughts are filled with beautiful imagery of nature's sounds, smells, and scenes. However, increasingly Shingo's dreams bring him anguish over his moral responsibilty, his hidden love for his daughter-in-law, Kikuko, and his desire for the beauty of his wife's younger sister, his late first wife. In the end, family ties hold this microcosm of Japanese life together--for better or for worse.

kawabata's slow moving novel of family life blends dreams, rememberances and glancing interactions between the characters with a study of nature and the process of aging.

the subtle, furtive love between shingo and his neglected, much abused daughter-in-law kikuko forms the core of the novel. while nothing physical actually happens, a certain passage with a no mask is among kawabata's most erotic.

worth many re-readings, this poetic and beautiful book is among the best of kawabata's works translated to english.

Written by Kawabata sometime between 1954-59, it is obvious from this work of art why he won the Nobel prize in 1968. He accomplishes the telling of ordinary domestic life in pictures of words, not unlike a form of expanded haiku. The Japanese aethetics of simplicity and nature are so well described, at times I did not know if I were reading or in an art museum. ...

The Sound of the Mountain is about an older man named Shingo, a grouchy divorced daughter, a lazy, loser son that is cheating on his wife, and his son's wife Kikuko. The story tells of abortions, infidelity, abusive husbands, and war widows. Shingo suffers from flashes of lost memories and occasionally hears the mountain behind his garden rumbling, which seems to signify the closing of death. Shingo's memory is failing and he is showing signs of dementia or Alzheimer's disease.
Deciphering the different themes, I would think the mountain symbolizes the aging generation of Shingo. Reading his thoughts, the mountain seems to speak of ancient wisdom: the sin of incest-like relation, the responsibility and moral obligation towards one's own blood and marriage. With these, he thinks about repressing his gentle love for the child-woman, Kikuko and cleaning up the mess his family creates. The exact opposite is Shuichi, finding pleasure in an older woman, and remorselessly treating his marriage with cruelty. He cheats on his wife with an older woman and she becomes pregnant.
The haikus, or Japanese poems, enrich this admirable read far beyond most others, leading to the author being awarded the prestigious Literary award of Nobel Prize in 1968. Overall, this was a very interesting read. I would recommend this book to all.

This translated version of _The Sound of the Mountain_ makes me want to read the original text. During my read, I felt like I was missing the essence of Kawabata's words (obviously). A tale of an old man, Shingo, and his immediate family--wife, daughter-in-law, daughter and son--the novel captures the twists and turns of familial bonds. Shingo narrates this wonderful story, and we learn from his thoughts that age certainly carries with it a yearning for the past, an apathetic outlook for the future, yet, curiously, an appreciation for what is situated in the present. Kawabata's descriptions of Shingo's thoughts are existential in nature; the narrative is calculated, yet poetic--minimal, yet suffuse with meaning. I highly recommend.