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4.5
It is somewhat difficult to categorize these very short stories by Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata. Some are funny tales of village life, some are tragic existential tales, many are about women. So many of the tales are about the roles of women, the relationships between women or between men and women that I would say that this is a central theme that Kawabata explores in these short works. However, the dream and dream imagery begins to play a greater role in the stories written later in Kawabata's career. Some don't seem to be short stories but are recollections, such as the story of delivering puppies at home. Often the stories tell of a pivotal event in the life of a person, usually a woman, who embarks upon a new direction after some new insight or event. The vulnerability of women in a male dominated world comes into most of the tales and highlights the paradox of how men become intoxicated by women but also are cruel and repressive to women. Another theme is that people become other people, especially the personalities and roles of deceased family members. Several stories tell of a sister not only taking on the roles but also the persona and tastes of a deceased sister.The stories are listed in chronological order and end with the superb longer work "Gleanings from Snow Country" an example of the highest level of short story writing. After reading it, I found I had goose bumps on my arms, and the story became even more rich and rewarding upon my second reading. Most all of the stories virtually beg for a second reading because Kawabata is a master in the unsaid, the implied, the hidden, the sensory impression.Another short story of incredible power is "Snow" where an elderly man checks into a hotel for 3 days to lay in bed and dream. Across from his bed is a hotel painting of snow and this cheap snow scene is the path for his unconscious to open and flow forth, which was the wise old man's initial goal. In three pages Kawabata is able to illustrate the relationship between the desire to fully know the self, human unconscious content, psychological projection, and the flow of the creative process.The stories are written over a period of 50 years. The final story was written prior to Kawabata's suicide. Death is a theme frequently explored in the stories and is treated very naturalistically, as an event in the life flow of a family or community. He tends to embed Death into the larger tale of the pattern of family life before and after the death.The work is minimalistic, poetic, and impressionistic with no attempts to over-explain or over-describe anything. He is far more minimalistic than Hemingway or Cormac McCarthy. The short stories integrate brief character study and situations and sensory impressions. Sight and blindness are especially emphasized. Each sentence is essential. The stories are both light in form and infinite in possibilities. Much is said with little.
