janhicks 's review for:

Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima

4.0

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I didn't know what to expect with this book. It turned out to be beautiful and sad. Set at the transition from Meiji to Taisho, with Japan still a contradiction of feudal tradition and modernity, it explores the love affair of two aristocratic young adults and the consequences of forbidden love. The observance of social niceties contrasts with the passionate yearning for freedom, with the way of life of the old guard slowly giving way to the Westernised ways of the new rich. As much as it's a commentary on society, though, it's an old fashioned love story in the mould of Abelard and Héloise or Romeo and Juliet. Mishima's prose is delicately elegant. I was carried along effortlessly by it.