Reviews

The House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories by Yasunari Kawabata

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gemaro's review against another edition

2.0

Pues la verdad que hubiera podido pasar sin leer más historias de instrumentalización de mujeres y del elevado onirismo que ésta provoca en la mente de los hombres. Telita los representantes de la Crítica Literaria.

annali94's review against another edition

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1.0

I understood nothing

constelacion's review against another edition

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5.0

Me voy a referir al primer cuento: La casa de las bellas durmientes. Kawabata es un gran narrador, super japonesa en la estetica y en como avanza la "historia", la descripción que hace de las niñas del cuento es bastante hermosa y es bastante erotica e intima, aunque nunca de una manera "pornografica" o muy explicita, simplemente transmite las sensaciones de el viejo protagonista, Egushi que se emerge en estas extrañas visitas a la Casa donde bellas jovenes sedadas o drogradas duermen con sus ancianos clientes.

El final es como shockeante. Solo eso diré lol. Los otros cuentos son extraños, sobre todo "el Brazo". Realismo magico quizas? al menos me dio esa sensacion de fantasia y realidad mezclada como si fuera una pesadilla muy muy real.

Igual me encantó el libro, así mucho /o\

alismcg's review against another edition

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3.0

hmmmm, different ... definitely different than prior reads of Kawabata. Dragged through the story about the arm, not a favorite for this writer.

horseknickers's review against another edition

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4.0

I don't like reading the blurbs on the backs of books so that I don't come to a story with preconceived ideas. That said, I started reading House of the Sleeping Beauties with my own preconceived ideas based on the title. It sounded like like such a straightforward title, but it and one of the stories that followed, One Arm, took such unusual turns from the very start that I found it pleasantly surprising. Still, this is not my favorite of Kawabata's works that I've read. For that, I recommend The Sound of the Mountain.

arrow1350's review against another edition

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1.0

I read this book because of the title. I saw it from the movie trailer of the film based on the short story and loved the ring of it. And that's probably the most interesting part of the book- the title. I thought the book was really boring and weird (if that's the right word for it) - disturbing, seedy, eerie? Not that I haven't enjoyed books with that tone, but this didn't make me think or give me any insight or stay on my mind. It just made me think, "What am I reading?"

All of the stories are about middle-aged/elderly men and dive into how they deal with their loneliness. So maybe, I just couldn't relate while I was reading it nor did I want to. Their loneliness was manifesting in disturbing/morally-bankrupt ways. One developed a parasocial relationship with drugged women, another with a woman's detached arm, and the last bought birds to let them die. Maybe the book does reflect something real in its depictions of the protagonists by showing how men of a particular age find it hard to make healthy emotional connections so they go with what's easier. But the way the book is written, it kind of indulges in their loneliness without really saying anything profound about it.