Beauty and Sadness - Yasunari Kawabata

"Hello."
"This is Oki." He waited. "It's Oki. Oki Toshio."
"Yes. It's been such a long time." She spoke with the soft Kyoto drawl.
He was not sure how to begin, so he went on quickly to avoid embarrassing her, as if he were calling on impulse.
"I came to hear the New Year's Eve bells in Kyoto."
"The bells?"
"Won't you listen to them with me?"
She made no reply, even when he repeated his question. Probably she was too surprised to know what to say.
"Did you come alone?" she asked, after a long pause.
"Yes. Yes, I'm alone."
Again Otoko was silent...

Twenty four years since their last meeting. Oki was 30 then, and Otoko was only 15. A Love affair, went astray, after she conceived and delivered a dead child. He was married then and was living with his wife. They separated, giving a life time of horrible memories to Otoko. The baby she delivered died at child birth, a failed suicide attempt and a few years at the mental asylum. But she survived all and is now stay at Kyoto, as successful painter and artist. Otoko is a successful writer, lives with his wife and son. His most famous book has been the story of his love affair with Otoko, which sold millions of copies, soared his popularity, while drifting Otoko into obscurity, when her character was talked about.

The rendezvous did not go well with every one. Kieko Sakami, young protege of Otoko, her lover , her accomplice, who stays with Otoko, seems to be jealous and does not hide her unhappiness over the new spark triggered in her teacher's life. She did take it to her heart and  promised to take revenge on Oki, for his abandoning of Otoko. In a clever manipulation and various duals (with Oki and later his son) she had her way, managing to lure Oki's son into her trap and bringing him to his death.

Kawabata has a simple way of story telling, stacking various layers of human subtleties. The revenge  itself  is not one sided. One can infer his own versions from which angle he intend to approach.  Kieko is jealous of Otoki's continued love of Oki, Fumiko ( Oki's wife) is jelous on Otoko, Otoko herself is jealous of her protege's ability to get both father and the son under her spell ( Keiko even had stayed with the writer in a hotel room for a night).  Oki's son, despite his intelligence and positive outlook, realising the danger he is getting into, seems to have taken the path that has been paved by the manipulator. The clever twists and turns in the hands of a master story teller is not enough to lift this book to something of a literary achievement..

This is one of the last novels of Kawabata, whose Snow Country and , thousand cranes have been some of my favorite books. However, this short novel did not have the same impact. The book has the signature Kawabata style,lyrical writing, brilliant dialogues and the initial parts of the book was very good. But it soon, degraded to a mediocre revenge story of a possessive lover. A short novel, failed to create the profound impact. While most characters have their own identity, most remain short lived without blooming into one that stand out. The smart craft works, and intelligent writing alone do not lift this into a good piece of literature. At many places, this reminded me of the "Quicksand" of Tanizaki, which again failed to impress me.

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Beauty and Sadness  (1964 )

Yasunari Kawabata ( translated from Japanese by Howard S. Hibbett 1975)

139 Pages
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Quicksand - Jun'ichirō Tanizaki

Well, I haven't read Tanizaki before. I know he is considered one of the best Japanese writers in the 20th century. Having decided to read him, I picked up two of his book last time from 'Strand' and started with the shorter one, the other being Makioka sisters. On a general glance around the world of readers, I found out this book was considered a master piece by many and in general the enthusiasm was very high. That set the bar high on expectations and in the end, I must admit, I ended up a bit disappointed. Considering the time it was written( in the late 20s), and the theme that could have shocked the conservative society, this could have significance in the modern Japanese Literature. However, reading this now, 85 years after its original publication, it did not stir any excitement in me.

Sonoko Kakiuchi, 23 yrs old, married to Kotaro, a law practitioner is enrolled in an art school, to continue her love for art and more importantly to escape the boredom at home. The husband and wife leave home together and return back home together in what seems to be a perfect life. However, a malignant rumour that spread across the school, connecting Sonoko to another student Mitsuko, changes the whole scene. The whole thing seems to be the handy work of the School Pricipal, who commented on one of the pictures of Sonoko, that it resembles Mitsuko. It did not take long for the two accused to join, and form into a friendship, somewhat challenging the rumour mongers. The friendship soon changed into mutual attraction and Mitsuko started spending long hours at Sonoko's bedroom, posing nude for her friend for the picture that take eternity to complete. The act of seduction and manipulation begin with a new entrant to the scene in the form of a lover Watanuki. In some clever manipulation, Watanuki get Sonoko to sign a 'blood-pact' of friendship and brother-sister relation complicating the affair after Watanuki starts his black-mail. Getting into it to the affair to bring normalcy, Sonoko's husband Kotoro gets dragged into the "quicksand".  Now the control is in the hand of Mitsuko, who until now cleverly manipulated the events, gets the upper hand over the husband and wife, controlling every movement and event sin their life. In the end, the trio form a suicide pact, killing themselves with poisonous sleeping powder. increasing the dose day after day. In the end, it was Sonoko who survive, narrating the story to the unnamed writer.

A typical story of seduction and betrayal, with more twists and turns with the readers suspicion pointing towards various characters as the manipulator. The protagonist, caught in the labrynth of unholy sexual adventure with another woman, continue to be fooled by those around her. She goes through the typical anger, revenge, seduction, reconciliation routine and end up as the victim of her own stupidity. This is a tale which can give you enough dramatic and thrilling moments and no wonder there had been many adaptation into films.

The writing( and the translation) is very simple and largely told in the first person narrative of Sonoko, as told to the writer. Tanizaki handled the sensuality and seduction with prudently. The air of carnal desire between two women is in the air, which gradually pave way to possessiveness, aggression to cruel manipulation and retribution ( the best way of conclusion) is in the hand of a good writer. Cleverly plotted, one get all that you see in a cheap thriller camouflaged in sensuality and some good prose.  However good the writing is and novel the subject is, it is still far too light and insignificant to merit the accolades I see the book received. I may be missing something, for what the rest of the readers are able to appreciate the book. I will read the Makioka Sisters soon and revisit this book again on a later date. I might, hopefully, change my impression on this book.

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Quicksand ( 1928-30 )

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki   ( translated from Japanese by Howard Hibbett in 1994)

Vintage international

224 Pages
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Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin

Out of the 50 odd books I read this year, only a few will remain with me in memory over the years. This one will be one of such for its brilliance and class. Every thing about this book is mesmerizing ; his style of prose, the narrative, the conversations the sentences and the appropriate omissions and structuring of the book. May be a novel with a gay love theme was disturbing during its publication, about half a century ago, and that shock value is over and one will not gauge the book for that. This short novel about a 30 year old White American , currently living in Paris ( James Baldwin was in Paris during the writing and publication of this book) befriends and later fall in love with an Italian bartender. Its his complex and dangerous relationship,

David, living in Paris on the meagre amount of money sent by his father from USA, befriends Giovanni , a bartender in a gay bar while his girlfriend Halla was away in Spain on a vacation. Struggling for fund and was thrown out of his lodge for payment outstanding, David meets one of his friend Jacques with a dubious reputation ( an old man living alone but likes to keep friendship with young boys), to get some money. The duo later ends up in the Bar run by Guillaume, where he meets Giovanni an Italian bartender. The atmosphere, the absence of his girlfriend and some clever maneuver by his benefactor, the foursome, spends the entire evening and the next morning in company. Giovanni and David, later ended up in 'Giovanni's Room'( claustrophobic, unkempt, dour, and threatening according to David) and happen to spend the evening together in bed. Nowhere to go, David stays back in Giovanni's room and the next couple of months they grow their intimate relationship and affection until the return of his girlfriend. Now torn between the love for his girl and the affection and the relationship with Giovanni, David had to make his choice. David's departure and the lose of his job at Gillaume makes Giovanni restless, takes him back to Jacques. The tale gets worst after the death of Gillaume by the hand of Giovanni , who was later arrested and sentenced to death. Tormented with guilt, David break away from Hella follows Giovanni through the trial and the place of his final sentence. We leave David in despair, in South France, at the town of the sentence, narrating the tale in "the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life".

David was not gay, except for an early days recollection of an experience with his classmate during school days. He had a steady relationship with his American girlfriend, until her travel to Spain on contemplating their marriage and future. His encounter with Giovanni was accidental and the sexual relationship thence has not been a result of his hidden desire. Even after the return of his girlfriend, he continued his normal living with his girlfriend. It wasn't the sexual desire that attracted him to Giovanni. It is something beyond that and David fails to express or really understand the reasons. He find himself responsible for all that has happened to Giovanni and wanted to redeem himself from the guilt.

A theme on gay love affair and extremely sensual in nature, James Baldwin does a phenomenal job of balancing his writing with extreme control. For me this reading was more rewarded as compared to Go Tell it on the Mountains. There seems to be the perfect coordination between the length of the book, the sentences, the paragraphs and conversations. Some of the paragraphs were so brilliant and I had to read them again and again. At no point, this was vulgar or repulsive ( most of the sex writing what I read of late are so bad), and the emotional side of the relationship is dealt with sublime quality by this marvellous writer. Great book.

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Giovanni's Room ( 1956 )

James Baldwin

Penguin Modern Classics

159 Pages
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A Single Man - Christopher Isherwood

With the recent release of the film adaptation of this book, it surged again in the circulation and discussion in the literary world. Christopher Isherwood's tale of a gay College Professor  in California, through one of his usual days in existence.  In an interestingly mixed narrative, shifting between first person and third person , also into his alter ego , the reader goes through sympathetically through his daily motions..

"Waking up begins with saying am and now. That which has awoken , then lies for a while staring up at the ceiling and down into itself until it has recognised. I, and therefrom deduced I am, I am now".

"Staring and staring into the mirror, it sees many faces within its face - the face of the child, the boy, the young man, the not-so-young-man all present still, preserved like fossils on superimposed layers, and like fossils dead. Their message to this live dying creature is: Look at us- we have died- what is there to be afraid of ?
.
.
Obediently, it washes, shaves, brushes its hair; for it accepts its responsibilities to the others. It is even glad that it has its place among them.. it knows its name. It is called George"

Living an isolated life for eight months, after the death of his mate Jim , who died in a car crash, George is a lone soul in every sense. His alternate sexual preferences which he does not hide, makes him aloof from the neighbours, his students and colleagues to a large extent. We follow him from his daily motion from being awake in the morning , brushing and getting ready for his teaching assignments, his visits to the friend of Jim, who is in her deathbed, a dinner meeting with friend Charlotte , before having another boozy evening where he is accompanied by Kenny , one of his student, whom he invites to his house.

His life is transparent. There is no pretentious self in motion. Be his sexuality, his admiration for good looking men ( those playing tennis in body tight attire, those in the Gym which he frequent) , his love and loss of his friend Jim, his open and frank discussion with Charlie and Kenny.  There is always a longing for a company, and though he likes the company of Charlie, and given the fact that she has been desiring for him despite his known orientation, he rejects her advances. ( It is not that she does not know his preferences, but as he says "Do women ever stop trying? No. But, because they never stop, they learn to be good losers.").  But it was in the evening when Kenny comes in to the Gay Bar which George frequent, his hidden desire and lust came out in the open. Guided by the alcohol, he looses himself and flirts with the young boy, goes for a swim in the sea, invites him home, provide him with dress before he himself fall into dreamy sleeps and hallucinations of death amidst his desire for a new company

Though the theme and sequence looks simple, the book is fabulous for the way Isherwood had treated the subject. The use of outstanding prose,  while on the edge of intellectually stimulating, but retaining the simplicity. The portrayal of character George, in its true sense, and all humility. He is very open in every engagement.

Proud of his European origins, his take on the cold war era with the Cuban Missile crisis at its peak, there is discussion on potential war with USSR at the academic circles, George is pre-occupied with his on fights for survival. He is a British living in America, a homo sexual in a heterosexual world, intellect to the dull academics and neighbours, man with exquisite tastes to the dull and stupid surroundings.

There is melancholy in the reading, without any written words. He on his part is witty, and flirtatious ( at times) and intelligent but you cant but sympathise with George.

One outstanding work of literature in 152 pages. Stunning prose, beautifully formed sentences, appropriate tonal and lyrical shifts .The more you read, your admiration grow for this brilliant writer. I have to watch the adaptation soon.  Also, to find out other books and get hold of them.

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A Single Man  ( 1964 )

Christopher Isherwood

Vintage Classic

152 Pages

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Here are some brilliant reviews of this book : Asylum , The Guardian , Speakitsname, shigekuni