The Peak, Simon Fraser University's Student Newspaper since 1965, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6, e-mail: epeak@mail.peak.sfu.ca, phone: (604) 291-3597 fax: (604) 291-3786
Volume 93, Issue 5 June 3, 1996 Arts 

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata

review by aaron tyler morris

Discovering Asian literature is like an awakening, yet very few writers from Asia have managed to penetrate through to the fickle literary tastes of the west. There is, however, Yasunari Kawabata: Nobel Prize winner and author of the 1956 novel Snow Country. This extraordinary novel reveals the life of a dilettante, Shimamura, vacationing in snowy western Japan, and the lives of his two geishas, Komako and Yoko.

The three characters search for love, only to discover that they are incapable of such feeling. Like the characters' inability to feel, the narrative is likewise minimal. At times, Kawabata's prose reads more like haiku than a novel. Subtle, yet rich imagery replaces a complex narrative-"insects smaller than moths gathered on the thick white powder of her neck. Some of them died there as Shimamura watched." Thus, what remains in place of a complex narrative is the bare, yet beautiful essentials which exist largely in the characters' conversations, and the haiku-like images which make up their surroundings, and give insight into their characters. The slightest change in mood, the tiny nuances of the atmosphere, are what make up this extraordinary story. Like haiku poetry, each word is essential to the overall meaning and beauty of the novel.

The two geishas, Komako and Yoko, are part of a cultural phenomenon that is relatively nonexistent today; it is for this very reason that they are so fascinating. Kawabata's portrait of the geishas reveals a great deal of the psychology involved in such an occupation. For these two characters, this way of life is simply the means to financial security. No matter how hard the women pretend that real feelings exist in their relationship with Shimamura, and that they are "artists" when they perform music for him, they are constantly reminded of their misconception.

This reissue of Edward Seidensticker's translation of Kawabata's classic novel is a must-read for those interested in expanding their literary tastes and experiences beyond the western tradition.


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