ŷ������

DEAR FRIENDS,

PLEASE DO NOT VOTE 'LIKE' FOR THIS REVIEW BECAUSE IT IS IN FACT FOR 'KUSAMAKURA' (PENGUIN, 2008): IF YOU LIKE IT, VISIT THIS PAGE AND VOTE THERE:/review/show...

AS FOR THE FOLLOWING 6 WELL-WISHERS: Sonja, Ben, Aubrey, *Bar*, Garima, and Aziz, please move your 'Like' by reclicking your 'Like' on this review (for 'Unlike') then click 'Like' on this one for the right book review: /review/show... thanks for your kind help. However, I have to resend my request to notify your 'Like' needed, so that I would delete this page.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience caused due to such a persisting technical problem.

Translated in a previous edition entitled "The Three-Cornered World" by Alan Turney, this is another edition by another translator. Reading this compact novel by Natsume Soseki was similar to reading a haiku-like one that requires literary interpretations according to, I think, one's interests, backgrounds and appreciation. The more we read it farther from Chapter 1 onward, we'd gradually realize why Soseki has rightly been acclaimed as " the father of modern Japanese literature" and in his own words, Kusamakura is " a haiku-style novel that lives through beauty." (back cover)

First, his readers will never know the name of "I" as the events proceed, in other words, we'll know him as a male narrator in his 30s who has traveled alone from Tokyo in search of somewhere to paint or to write his haiku poems in a remote rural town in the mountains near the sea. Eventualy, this mysterious protagonist literally intensifies his readers' curiosity and perplexity. However, it's our relief to know the name of the lovely daughter who has her own mysterious ways in taking care of him as her guest arriving at night and during his stay with the family there. Her name 'Nami' meaning beauty is appropriate in the fairly-romatic plot since, I think, it induces us to keep reading to know more.

Second, some readers may find this novel boring at first due to the author's lengthy descriptions with few dialogs, for instance, in Chapters 1, 3, 6, etc. However, I understand he's tried to describe the contexts, the characters, the natural settings, etc, as related to the novel's theme. I found reading Chapter 3 (pp. 35-39) so entrancing that I scribbled 'one of the great chapters' at the end. Moreover, another unthinkable chapter keeps haunting and challenging me for my vision, that is, its subtlety is nearly beyond my imagination and this is one of the reasons why Soseki's superbly-written works have since been admired. The chapter in question is Chapter 7, I think we may find it a bit hard to visualize such illusive description.

Finally, I liked its fine translation by Dr Meredith McKinney and I noticed the adjective 'shimmering' has been used in two sentences (p. 60) and in another (p. 115). Therefore, I think this word suggests partly or nearly all of its key theme, that is, it focuses on its shimmering romantic (or semiromantic if we don't take the affairs between Nami and 'I' seriously) story between two strangers who happen to meet each other somewhere in the mountains in rural, seaside Japan.

In conclusion, the novel has its own way in ending the story and allows its reader to ponder happily, neutrally or unhappily I'm not sure. That remains mysterious and challenging to its readers to try reading it as one of the most shimmering Japanese novels I've ever read. Find a copy and enjoy!