What an imagination—and if not wrested out from the imagination to be put on a blank page, what a life! Ryu Murakami’s Almost Transparent Blue shook me violently, coming from Kawabata as I was. The novel […]
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The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Basho
I was reading this six months ago when I was stuck in Paris for some weeks (thought I lost my passport). What an epic journey it must have been for Basho, the renowned Japanese poet, […]
In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki
After reading Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata, I wanted to learn more about Japanese aesthetics and the inspiration for Kawabata’s writing technique. In Praise of Shadows by renownede Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki elaborates on Japanese […]
The Samurai by Shusaku Endo: Japanese Literature Book Review
The novel is set in the 17th century and follows a four-year journey made by a group of low-ranking samurai (and retainers) sent on a diplomatic mission by a faction of the Japanese government to […]
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima : Japanese Literature Book Review
An infinitely interesting investigation into the great question beauty. This first time around, I could not recognize if Mishima enounciated a coherent theory of aesthetics or if what was written was a confused collection of […]