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marc129 's review for:
Snow Country
by Yasunari Kawabata
Unlike the other two works by Kawabata I read ([b:House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories|14032|House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories|Yasunari Kawabata|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1397139224l/14032._SY75_.jpg|3076515] and [b:Thousand Cranes|14027|Thousand Cranes|Yasunari Kawabata|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388205415l/14027._SY75_.jpg|25753548]), this one didn’t captivate me. Yet, the opening pages are of unparalleled beauty: a man in a train carriage at night observes his fellow travelers through the reflection in the steamed glass, which at the same time shows majestic snow-capped mountains in the background. But what follows is a sequence of rather bizarre scenes in which the man interacts with a fickle girl, a geisha in a mountain resort, who is attracted to him but at the same time repels him, and who also evokes both resistance and attraction in him. I struggled to get a grip on the story, but I have the impression that this book wasn't about that at all. Quite the contrary, perhaps Kawabata wanted to highlight the elusive and enigmatic of reality, as he did so sublimely in 'House of Sleeping Beauties'. Only, here it didn't work. Maybe it was the old Dutch translation I was reading, but also his precise, very descriptive style didn't quite come into its own here. Perhaps I have missed the right reading keys to appreciate this.