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A review by twowheelsaway
The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata
4.0
This book is exceptionally beautiful. Kawabata has an incredibly light touch, barely describing the feelings of the characters or their actions. Instead, we follow the character's gaze to some flowers, or mountains, or the rain, and in doing so understand how they feel.
My favorite thing about this book is something I've never seen in English literature. In English, a double break between paragraphs usually signifies a change of "scene" or other dramatic inflection. Kawabata puts these pauses right in the middle of conversations or descriptions. It usually serves to emphasize the image in the sentence immediately preceding, and leave some space for it to have emotional impact.
My favorite thing about this book is something I've never seen in English literature. In English, a double break between paragraphs usually signifies a change of "scene" or other dramatic inflection. Kawabata puts these pauses right in the middle of conversations or descriptions. It usually serves to emphasize the image in the sentence immediately preceding, and leave some space for it to have emotional impact.