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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
The reader meets Ogawa Sanshirō on the train taking him to Tokyo. The young man has just graduated from his provincial college and is headed to Tokyo Imperial University, and life in the big city. It’s 1907; Japan is experiencing an era of rapid change and modernization. Western ideas and influences are all the rage and social roles are changing. Sanshirō gets his first encounter with this new milieu even before he reaches Tokyo. He finds himself fending off the amorous advances of a pretty young woman about his age. It’s very embarrassing. Nothing like this every happened at home. To make it worse, when they part she calmly remarks, “You’re quite a coward, aren’t you?”
Actually, he isn’t so much afraid, as reserved. Sanshirō keeps steadily on task, moving ahead with his studies, admiring the beauty in his new and often perplexing environment, and trying to make some sense of it all. In the introduction contemporary author Murakami notes how different this bildungsroman is from its European models because of Sanshirō’s detachment, which to Western readers may come across as indecisive, but to Japanese readers is, strangely comfortable.”
Nevertheless, the book is a skillfully written story of a time and place full of delights, disappointments, and promise. It’s also a place populated by a diverse group of interesting characters all with their own eccentricities and ways of looking at the world.
Actually, he isn’t so much afraid, as reserved. Sanshirō keeps steadily on task, moving ahead with his studies, admiring the beauty in his new and often perplexing environment, and trying to make some sense of it all. In the introduction contemporary author Murakami notes how different this bildungsroman is from its European models because of Sanshirō’s detachment, which to Western readers may come across as indecisive, but to Japanese readers is, strangely comfortable.”
Nevertheless, the book is a skillfully written story of a time and place full of delights, disappointments, and promise. It’s also a place populated by a diverse group of interesting characters all with their own eccentricities and ways of looking at the world.
the translation is accurate and it reads well - though it also reads more like rubin's own voice than souseki's.
A calm and deceptively quiet novel but it is so effective in highlighting the convergence of traditional Japan with increasing modernization (Westernization?). A delicate read which allows the main themes and issues to shine all the more brighter. It's also an interesting coming-of-age story of sorts and handled in a way that is not a cliche.