Palm-Of-The-Hand Stories

I was inspired to read Yasunari Kawabata's collection of short stories, Palm-Of-The-Hand-Stories (1988), when I learned that one of them, "Mr. Thank You," inspired Hiroshi Shimizu's film of the same name. It is a brief four page story that was expanded into a full length feature. It was said that kawabata felt these stories were the essence of his craft and I can see the lyricism that infuses his novels in many of these stories. However, some of them are so brief they are quickly forgotten, but others are strange and memorable. Many of the later stories are more elaborate, in fact, the last one, "Gleanings from Snow Country" is a story version of the novel of the same title.