Author: Natsume Soseki
Length: 228 pages
Year Written: 1908
Why I chose this book: I read somewhere that Haruki Murakami is a big fan of Natsume Soseki, and I was curious to know more about my inspiration's inspiration (in fact, Murakami wrote the introduction to this version of Sanshiro).
I did it again. I read a whole book, only to realize at the end that it is the first of a series. First of all, this book took me just over a month to finish (life has been a bit hectic). Secondly, the plot was so subtle that I can't really remember what happened. This 50 book challenge has really been a challenge of a new kind. Let me try to feel my way through this.
Sanshiro is about a 23-year-old guy who's just left a small community college in his rural hometown for a big university in Tokyo. He is the equivalent of a kid who's spent his whole life in Oklahoma and then heads for NYU. He is confused by the banter, the customs, and especially the women (this was written during a time, apparently, when women were like toy poodles and had to be escorted everywhere). He develops an intense crush on a woman named Mineko, who is coy, reserved, and yet bolder than any chick Sanshiro's ever encountered. The pace of the book is very slow, and really seems to spare no expense on setting the scene of Sanshiro's maiden voyage. Compared to Murakami's writing (which came several decades later), Soseki can seem a bit dry, but it does not deduct from the beauty and elegance of his storytelling technique. This book required a bit of patience, but at the least it was an ethereal experience.
Rating: 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment