Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely terrible
Review: I'm being generous with the one star rating. I would've given it a zero but a rating that low is impossible. There was no plot to this book. The action is so subtle that it is impossible to follow. And the ending with the observations of the Milky Way, what was that all about? It made absolutely no sense. There was no point to this book and I must say that reading it was the biggest waste of my time. There's several hours of my life I'll never get back...
Rating: 
Summary: Snow Country
Review: In spite of all the professional reviews singing the praises of this book I found it difficult to read. The characters are tragic individuals caught up in a state of existance that is pathetic at best. Yasunari Kawabata uses a mirroring technique in the dialogue between the two protagonists that dulled my senses. For example, "I am going out". "You are leaving"? This is often followed by a paradoxical response, "No, I am staying". This was most difficult for me to appreciate.Kawabata does a wonderful job describing various nuances of life in the mountains and the life of one Geisha. He makes the scenery tangible and the people visible to the readers eye. I had to make a commitment to the book in order to read it through to completion; and, by the time I was finished, I was depressed.
Rating: 
Summary: A poetic story illustrates a timeless tragedy.
Review: It has often been said Yasanuri Kawabata's books read like beautiful poems. In reading "Snow Country", it was easy to see why Kawabata's writing has earned this reputation. Kawabata uses beautiful images to illustrate simple truths about love, loneliness and the fragility of our existence. This theme seems to resonate in one of his opening scenes. Shimamure, one of the main characters looks at the reflection of a lovely woman's face on the window of a train traveling through the icy landscape of the "Snow County". Her reflection, floating above images of the passing, white, snow covered mountains reminds the reader of the fragility of beauty and the truth of life's fleeting nature. Kawabata's poignant images and his subtle character studies are pure genius. The winter snow of the countryside seems to be a metaphor for Shinamura - the city gentleman - cold and sterile. Shinamura's hollow relationship with Komako - an "innocent" country geisha - is a modern tragedy. Komako willingness to freely offer her affections to the distant Shinamura is touching. However, Shinamura seems no more able to feel for Komako than he does for the "kotatsu" which warms his room. This bittersweet story about the relationship between the cold Shimura and the simple mountain geisha, komako is truly timeless. It is no wonder this author earned himself a Nobel Prize.
Rating:
Summary: A poetic story illustrates a timeless tragedy.
Review: It has often been said Yasanuri Kawabata's books read like beautiful poems. In reading "Snow Country", it was easy to see why Kawabata's writing has earned this reputation. Kawabata uses beautiful images to illustrate simple truths about love, loneliness and the fragility of our existence. This theme seems to resonate in one of his opening scenes. Shimamure, one of the main characters looks at the reflection of a lovely woman's face on the window of a train traveling through the icy landscape of the "Snow County". Her reflection, floating above images of the passing, white, snow covered mountains reminds the reader of the fragility of beauty and the truth of life's fleeting nature. Kawabata's poignant images and his subtle character studies are pure genius. The winter snow of the countryside seems to be a metaphor for Shinamura - the city gentleman - cold and sterile. Shinamura's hollow relationship with Komako - an "innocent" country geisha - is a modern tragedy. Komako willingness to freely offer her affections to the distant Shinamura is touching. However, Shinamura seems no more able to feel for Komako than he does for the "kotatsu" which warms his room. This bittersweet story about the relationship between the cold Shimura and the simple mountain geisha, komako is truly timeless. It is no wonder this author earned himself a Nobel Prize.
Rating: 
Summary: Poignantly beautiful
Review: Kawabata is a master at images. He is able to bring readers to tears and emotional highs with exquisite composition of words. Snow Country is a sad story of wasted emotions and inescapable lives, and Kawabata's writing fits perfectly with the gloomy moods of the plot. The snow, mountains, indoor furnitures, clothes, sounds,and facial description of characters are so brilliantly written that it leaves the readers in awe. Kawabata, whose lyricism is so vivid and exquisite, can only be paralleled by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the contemporary era.
Rating:
Summary: What are you really thinking, I wonder?
Review: Kawabata is one of Japan's most respected authors, and "Snow Country" is his masterpiece. However, that does not mean that this is a book for everyone, or that everyone will necessarily understand or enjoy the novel. In fact, I got my copy as a cast-off from a friend who said it was incredibly boring and he didn't want to keep it. It is a demanding read, one that expects the reader to be able to catch the substance of the unsaid, the implied. Almost nothing is spoon-fed. There is no action, no crisis, nothing that most literary traditions has lead readers to expect from a novel. It demands patience, even though it is a slender volume. Personally, I found it captivating, and intensely deep and moving. Having read other Kawabata, I was prepared for the subtlety of style and the sparseness of language and story that is his trademark. He is the inheritor of the Haiku, which implies with as few words as necessary. The emotional depth of the novel is incredibly deep, much deeper than many novels I have read who express with much more fanciful language. The Geisha and the Dilettante, the one who affects love but cannot know true love, and the one who gives herself to love even though she knows it cannot be. It is a passionless affair, yet intense. Like the snow country itself, the landscape of their hearts is sparse, yet life lies under the surface covering of insulation. I did find the translation annoying and disappointing, and I was surprised to find such a lackluster translation on one of Japan's premier novels. The constant use of quotations for "mountain trousers," for instance, instead of just naming it once and using the Japanese term. I am sure that a better translation could capture the novel even better, and perhaps transport it for a new audience. All in all, one of the best Japanese novels that I have read. Simply incredible, and worth the time. But remember your patience.
Rating:
Summary: What are you really thinking, I wonder?
Review: Kawabata is one of Japan's most respected authors, and "Snow Country" is his masterpiece. However, that does not mean that this is a book for everyone, or that everyone will necessarily understand or enjoy the novel. In fact, I got my copy as a cast-off from a friend who said it was incredibly boring and he didn't want to keep it. It is a demanding read, one that expects the reader to be able to catch the substance of the unsaid, the implied. Almost nothing is spoon-fed. There is no action, no crisis, nothing that most literary traditions has lead readers to expect from a novel. It demands patience, even though it is a slender volume. Personally, I found it captivating, and intensely deep and moving. Having read other Kawabata, I was prepared for the subtlety of style and the sparseness of language and story that is his trademark. He is the inheritor of the Haiku, which implies with as few words as necessary. The emotional depth of the novel is incredibly deep, much deeper than many novels I have read who express with much more fanciful language. The Geisha and the Dilettante, the one who affects love but cannot know true love, and the one who gives herself to love even though she knows it cannot be. It is a passionless affair, yet intense. Like the snow country itself, the landscape of their hearts is sparse, yet life lies under the surface covering of insulation. I did find the translation annoying and disappointing, and I was surprised to find such a lackluster translation on one of Japan's premier novels. The constant use of quotations for "mountain trousers," for instance, instead of just naming it once and using the Japanese term. I am sure that a better translation could capture the novel even better, and perhaps transport it for a new audience. All in all, one of the best Japanese novels that I have read. Simply incredible, and worth the time. But remember your patience.
Rating:
Summary: What are you really thinking, I wonder?
Review: Kawabata is one of Japan's most respected authors, and "Snow Country" is his masterpiece. However, that does not mean that this is a book for everyone, or that everyone will necessarily understand or enjoy the novel. In fact, I got my copy as a cast-off from a friend who said it was incredibly boring and he didn't want to keep it. It is a demanding read, one that expects the reader to be able to catch the substance of the unsaid, the implied. Almost nothing is spoon-fed. There is no action, no crisis, nothing that most literary traditions has lead readers to expect from a novel. It demands patience, even though it is a slender volume. Personally, I found it captivating, and intensely deep and moving. Having read other Kawabata, I was prepared for the subtlety of style and the sparseness of language and story that is his trademark. He is the inheritor of the Haiku, which implies with as few words as necessary. The emotional depth of the novel is incredibly deep, much deeper than many novels I have read who express with much more fanciful language. The Geisha and the Dilettante, the one who affects love but cannot know true love, and the one who gives herself to love even though she knows it cannot be. It is a passionless affair, yet intense. Like the snow country itself, the landscape of their hearts is sparse, yet life lies under the surface covering of insulation. I did find the translation annoying and disappointing, and I was surprised to find such a lackluster translation on one of Japan's premier novels. The constant use of quotations for "mountain trousers," for instance, instead of just naming it once and using the Japanese term. I am sure that a better translation could capture the novel even better, and perhaps transport it for a new audience. All in all, one of the best Japanese novels that I have read. Simply incredible, and worth the time. But remember your patience.
Rating:
Summary: Only women can genuinely love
Review: Kawabata's 'Snow Country' is a geisha story.
One of the main characters of the book, Komako, had to sell herself in order to pay the medical costs needed for the treatment of her lover's illness.
One of her clients is the rich good-for-nothing Shimamura.
They are attracted to each other, but love or even genuine human contact seems impossible for them.
All those facts are told more or less indirectly between poetic and melancholic descriptions of snow landscapes.
This novel was first published as a newspaper serial and contains some unnecessary repetitions. Also, the end is not convincing with a fire as a deus ex machina.
I found this novel too vague, too impressionistic and too loose.
For a more moving and realistic portrait of a geisha I recommend 'Autobiography of a Geisha' by Sayo Masuda.
Rating:
Summary: Dull, dull, dull......
Review: Ok, being fluent in Japanese and familiar with Japanese culture, I can see how this book (and style of writing) may be considered "of literary significance" in Japanese. Rendered in English, it is simply dull. For students of Japanese literature and writing styles, it may be worth "research" or "study" time, but it is not something the average English reader would pick up for entertainment value. The premise of the book seems to be based on "painting" the atomosphere around the characters, in all the drawn-out details. In Japanese, there would probably be a lot more significance in the descriptions and words, simply due to the underlying subleties of the language. However, in English, it's simply boring.
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