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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Took me 4 months to finish although I read other books during that time. The writing is very tense and I got lost in it (in a bad way, I guess?), but the description of nature is very beautiful. Also a lot more philosophical than I anticipated.
Kiyoaki, the main character, is not very likable and I guess he gets what he deserves in a sense that he has to face his choices about half way through. That's when the book pick ups and becomes more relatable. Also his friend Honda is kind of more interesting than him aswell as his love interest, Satoko.
It was hard book to get through, due to the writing, but the plot was overall pretty good. Somehow the last couple chapters made me want to read it again.. Even though I don't think that will happen.
Kiyoaki, the main character, is not very likable and I guess he gets what he deserves in a sense that he has to face his choices about half way through. That's when the book pick ups and becomes more relatable. Also his friend Honda is kind of more interesting than him aswell as his love interest, Satoko.
It was hard book to get through, due to the writing, but the plot was overall pretty good. Somehow the last couple chapters made me want to read it again.. Even though I don't think that will happen.
I feel very conflicted about this book. There are things I love about it and moments in it that I find very moving, but ultimately it did not really resonate with me.
In Yukio Mishima's famous tetralogy, "Spring Snow," the first novel is Kiyoaki, the only son of the new noble Marquis and Marquise Matsugae, owners of a magnificent forty-hectare estate not far from Tokyo.
The Marquis placed his son from an early age in an aristocratic family, the Ayakura. He will be raisin in an atmosphere of court nobility near the whimsical and very beautiful Satoko Ayakura, two years his senior.
Not yet a principal and now at his parents' house, Kiyoaki was 18 years old in 1912 when the Meiji era, marked by the end of Japan's policy of voluntary isolation, ended, and the Taisho era permeable to Western culture began.
Without being effeminate, Kiyoaki is of exceptional beauty, but neither studies nor sports activities interest him. Instead, he would rather be adept at idle musings and keep the details of his night dreams in a diary.
His tutor for six years, the manly Iinuma, is sorry for his lack of spirit and poor academic performance; even his best friend from a less fortunate background, the studious Honda, is often perplexed by such moods.
Although madly in love, Kiyoaki and Satoko have an unfortunate tendency to complicate things. Planned with the help of the matchmaker Tadeshina, Satoko's next, the slightest flirtation is so unspontaneous that it becomes laughable.
The childishness of the two young men is evident, and a misunderstanding one day takes on disproportionate proportions, amplified in time by Kiyoaki's pride.
With his customary skill, Mishima transforms an idyllic relationship with great potential in a few short chapters, which so felt to the reader, into a passionate drama fanned over the weeks by the weight of the conveniences specific to this aristocratic environment.
Friends, let Yukio Mishima take you by the hand to discover the magnificence of the Matsugae estate!
You will see the majestic maple trees of fragrance colour in the fall.
Perhaps you prefer to wait until spring and take a short boat ride on the lake to the islet in the centre of the property while "the first buds grow vertically so that the entire garden seems to stand on the tiptoe"?
You will enjoy "the blossoming cherry trees that intersperse between the pine trees in the long rows of trees on either side of the avenue that leads to the gate for almost a kilometre."
Each fifty-five chapter is a poetic diamond finely crafted by a writer at the top of his art. Together, they form a novelistic work whose beauty, like no other, has upset and satisfied the old reader that I am.
If my library had a small place in the shape of a tabernacle, I would undoubtedly store "Spring Snow," not without having decorated it previously with the eight stars of the barrier of Orion, this famous constellation whose central asterism slumped under a radiant moon.
The Marquis placed his son from an early age in an aristocratic family, the Ayakura. He will be raisin in an atmosphere of court nobility near the whimsical and very beautiful Satoko Ayakura, two years his senior.
Not yet a principal and now at his parents' house, Kiyoaki was 18 years old in 1912 when the Meiji era, marked by the end of Japan's policy of voluntary isolation, ended, and the Taisho era permeable to Western culture began.
Without being effeminate, Kiyoaki is of exceptional beauty, but neither studies nor sports activities interest him. Instead, he would rather be adept at idle musings and keep the details of his night dreams in a diary.
His tutor for six years, the manly Iinuma, is sorry for his lack of spirit and poor academic performance; even his best friend from a less fortunate background, the studious Honda, is often perplexed by such moods.
Although madly in love, Kiyoaki and Satoko have an unfortunate tendency to complicate things. Planned with the help of the matchmaker Tadeshina, Satoko's next, the slightest flirtation is so unspontaneous that it becomes laughable.
The childishness of the two young men is evident, and a misunderstanding one day takes on disproportionate proportions, amplified in time by Kiyoaki's pride.
With his customary skill, Mishima transforms an idyllic relationship with great potential in a few short chapters, which so felt to the reader, into a passionate drama fanned over the weeks by the weight of the conveniences specific to this aristocratic environment.
Friends, let Yukio Mishima take you by the hand to discover the magnificence of the Matsugae estate!
You will see the majestic maple trees of fragrance colour in the fall.
Perhaps you prefer to wait until spring and take a short boat ride on the lake to the islet in the centre of the property while "the first buds grow vertically so that the entire garden seems to stand on the tiptoe"?
You will enjoy "the blossoming cherry trees that intersperse between the pine trees in the long rows of trees on either side of the avenue that leads to the gate for almost a kilometre."
Each fifty-five chapter is a poetic diamond finely crafted by a writer at the top of his art. Together, they form a novelistic work whose beauty, like no other, has upset and satisfied the old reader that I am.
If my library had a small place in the shape of a tabernacle, I would undoubtedly store "Spring Snow," not without having decorated it previously with the eight stars of the barrier of Orion, this famous constellation whose central asterism slumped under a radiant moon.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
inspiring
sad
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
If cruelty needed a book... This is it. Damn you Mishima! Damn you for writing a book which wasn't predictable at all and damn you for crushing my hopes in the cruelest way possible. I will now need to watch videos with puppies for the rest of the year.
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes