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A review by huerca_armada
Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima
4.0
While initially put off by the incredibly purplish prose, after the first fifty pages I felt myself being drawn in more and more into this portrait of Japan that Mishima presents. Against the rocks of the post-Meiji era, with the country rapidly Westernizing, old forms of tradition are rapidly running aground, characters weave plots that quickly spin out of their control, and a love story blossoms amidst the suffocating pressure of a society in the throes of its own reckoning. By the end of the story, I was thoroughly hooked, breezing through the last half in a day as it sped to its conclusion. Even the main character, whose breezy, upper-class cruelty I had detested at first, transforms into character with genuine pathos, and a gripping arc.
As a beginning to his Sea of Fertility tetralogy, Mishima succeeded in creating a reason to keep at them. Though the terminology is somewhat dense at points (requiring a familiarity with Japanese customs or with handy access to a search engine), I would recommend this novel without question to almost everyone.
As a beginning to his Sea of Fertility tetralogy, Mishima succeeded in creating a reason to keep at them. Though the terminology is somewhat dense at points (requiring a familiarity with Japanese customs or with handy access to a search engine), I would recommend this novel without question to almost everyone.