Yasunari Kawabata's title novella concerns Eguchi, an old man who visits a discreet inn where he can spend the night beside young women who have been drugged into a deep sleep. The rules forbid him from touching them, and as he lies next to each girl, he thinks about his past lovers, his daughters, and his own approaching death. The volume also includes the stories "One Arm" and "Of Birds and Beasts," which take place in similar spaces of dream, desire, and decay. Kawabata's prose is spare and drifting.
It suits readers of Japanese literature who are comfortable with strange, unsettling subject matter and subtle writing. Those who admire Kawabata's Snow Country or Thousand Cranes will find a darker, more disquieting side of his work.
Deep, inward-looking, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1961
- Language
- EN
