Snow Country

Snow Country (1935) is generally considered Yasunari Kawabata's masterwork. However, although I enjoyed it, I am not sure that it is my favorite novel by Kawabata so far (there are still several novels that I want to read still). That honor may belong to Sound Of  A Mountain. That being said this story of wasted love is enigmatic like the best stories of Kawabata full of yearnings, complications of place, relationships, and time. The cold and wild desolate north is the setting of the novel where Shimamura, an educated, rich, dilettante from Tokyo falls for the lowly geisha apprentice Komako. Shimamura has become something of an expert on western ballet without ever having seen one. Komako is an accomplished entertainer even though she doesn't have full geisha status. There are some complication between her and her former lover who set her up with a caretaker and her family, that includes Yoko, a mentally unstable woman with a lovely singing voice who exasperates Komako and figures in prominently in the climax of the story. There are some telling details about life in a skiing resort town and traditional methods of weaving that have been lost to time. Typical themes of sensuality, purity, beauty, age, time, and art are explored by Kawabata.  There are several poetic and enigmatic passages throughout the novel translated by Edward Siedensticker with his usual aplomb and subtlety.