Rating: 
Summary: A Pepe Pick
Review: One of the best novels of the century.
Rating:
Summary: delights of the mountain spring
Review: Published in 1957 this work is reminiscent of Thomas Mann in that its lead character Shimamura is an aesthete and one with plenty of free time on his hands. Unlike Mann's characters, however, who never indulge themselves in the earthen paradise of the senses Kawabatas characters do. Are they better off for it? Hard to say. This book is Shimamura's sensual vacation but still he remains at a distance even while his every sense is indulged by the geisha Komako who seems to be offering him something more than the usual host of pleasures. The writing is poetic describing the snow covered mountains but like the mountains one senses there is something strangely remote about Shimamura as well. It is never quite clear just what until the end. Several possibilities will gently rest on the mind as one reads this mystery which I am quite sure Mann himself would have admired.
Rating: 
Summary: Snow Country is a disappointing entry from a Nobel Laureate.
Review: Simply put, Snow Country is an incomplete work which tiptoes around the weakly-told tale of a vacationing husband and his relationship with an atypical geisha.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Translation
Review: Snow country is a very tender and gentle story of love and fixation. My interest in Geishas started with Goldbloom's THE MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, and after reading that book, I went out and searched for as much information and books on geishas I could find. Snow Country is a different kind of love, compared to what you find in other books, this one is of a new and fresh experience, dried out after the marriage type of love. Very refreshing to read, I found this book to be less complicated as MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, but just as heartbreaking.
Rating:
Summary: Very Mediocre Work
Review: Snow Country is about a man who takes regular trips away from the city & goes to a little town in the "snow country" in northern Japan to have sexual affairs with the local geisha. On one of his trips, he sees a young woman & becomes attracted to her. The book has some beautiful imagry that makes me see the sights, hear the sounds & smell the smells of the snow country. But the book just doesn't have the ability to really draw me in to the character's lives. Instead of fascination, I'm only mildly interested. While the sensual imagry is beautiful, it's not masterful, as in a work like People In The Summer Night. I've read another work by this author, Thousand Cranes, and enjoyed it much more. I was really drawn into the world of the characters in that novel, but not here. Overall, I felt that this book, for the author & classic Japanese literature as well, was a letdown.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Thought Provoking
Review: Snow Country is the story of Shimamura, a wealthy Tokyo denizen who is unable to love and his trip to a hot spring in the snow country of Western Japan. There he meets a gesiha, Komako, who it seems has nothing better to do than spend all her waking hours with him. But, they never become intimate, Shimamura cannot give himself to her. They just talk and get to know each other, however we learn much more about her life than we do about Shimamura's. Snow Country is ably translated, there is beautiful imagery in the pages. Kawabata wrote a short novel, but it isn't a quick read. Give yourself time to ponder what meanings there are in the everyday events, and to savor the beautiful images presented. Dialogue is hard to follow because Kawabata does not identify the speaker, so the reader must infer from what is said who the speaker is.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Thought Provoking
Review: Snow Country is the story of Shimamura, a wealthy Tokyo denizen who is unable to love and his trip to a hot spring in the snow country of Western Japan. There he meets a gesiha, Komako, who it seems has nothing better to do than spend all her waking hours with him. But, they never become intimate, Shimamura cannot give himself to her. They just talk and get to know each other, however we learn much more about her life than we do about Shimamura's. Snow Country is ably translated, there is beautiful imagery in the pages. Kawabata wrote a short novel, but it isn't a quick read. Give yourself time to ponder what meanings there are in the everyday events, and to savor the beautiful images presented. Dialogue is hard to follow because Kawabata does not identify the speaker, so the reader must infer from what is said who the speaker is.
Rating:
Summary: Images and Nuances
Review: Snow Country, probably the most famous of Yasunari Kawabata's classical Japanese novels, is the story of a love affair doomed from the very start.Set on the snowy, mountainous slopes of Western Japan, Snow Country tells the story of Komako, a hot springs geisha and Shimamura, a wealthy Tokyo dilettante who works as an expert on occidental ballet. The focus of the novel is on three visits to Komako from Shimamura and their changing relationship as well as Yoko, a maid at the inn where Shimamura chooses to stay while in the snow country. Each of these three characters is searching for love, yet finds himself (or herself) incapable of fully experiencing it. Throughout Snow Country, Kawabata utilizes the changing of the seasons as a metaphor for the changing relationship between Komako and Shimamura. Meeting in the spring, Shimamura sees Komako as an "amateur," a mere girl, and feels the need to protect her, much as one would protect a growing seedling. The relationship thus begins in genuine friendship and under the protection of Shimamura, Komako grows and matures. Shimamura's second visit takes place in the fall and Komako, who has matured into a woman, finds that her relationship with Shimamura has changed; she no longer views him as her protector and finds that the friendship the two once shared has now become a struggling romance. Komako, who emotionally, has moved beyond the superficial Shimamura, now views him with a mixture of passion and contempt. Winter brings yet another change to this enigmatic relationship as Komako and Shimamura begin to argue and grow further and further apart. Shimamura finds himself attracted to Yoko, but it is an attraction that can only end in tragedy for all concerned. Although the ending of the novel may be confusing for some, it does effectively sever any ties that Komako and Shimamura may have had. Although lyrically beautiful, the novel is almost painful to read as the characters struggle to keep their dignity intact in the face of their disintegrating relationship. Kawabata's writing is gorgeous and poetic and the book embodies the juxtaposition of his signature themes of beauty and sorrow. The narrative is minimal, as it should be, emphasizing the three characters' inability to love and live life to the fullest. Kawabata uses subtle, yet rich, imagery instead of a dense and complex narrative. "...insects smaller than moths gathered on the thick white powder of her neck. Some of them died there as Shimamura watched." Kawabata wisely gives us only the beautiful essentials, existing largely in the conversations of the characters. The haiku-like images that make up their surroundings also lends insight into their character. This is an novel of nuance and atmosphere, of bare essentials and hidden meaning, of spaces and silences and hanging threads. Delineating the effects of desire on a man and loneliness on a woman, Snow Country is ultimately a book about love and the loss of love. Although bare and skeletal in some respects, it is still a classical story that burns with the fire of passion and then grows as cold as the snowy climate in which it is set.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful and haunting novel, among the world's best
Review: SNOW COUNTRY, the masterpiece of 1968 Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata, deserves its place among the finest novels of the 20th century. A tale of a heart-wrenching love affair between a wandering playboy and a geisha in a remote hot spring in Japan's northwest, SNOW COUNTRY quickly becomes more than it seems with the addition of a strange other girl, omnipresent even when she is offstage. Kawabata maintains an element of mystery among each character, especially the enigmatic Yoko about whom even the careful reader can find out little until it all clicks in the end. But in spite of the complexity of their personalities, the characters do come alive and in the end their actions make total sense, even if the reader was baffled in the pages before. Make no mistake, SNOW COUNTRY is a difficult work, especially in translation, but its ending, involving a glorious epiphany for its protagonist, is transcendent and mystically beautiful. In spite of the pains of confused love which forever torment Simamura and Komako, SNOW COUNTRY is full everywhere of beauty, especially the pure white landscape which is perpetually in the background. Kawabata presents such powerful images: Yoko reflected in the train window super-imposed on the blur of the countryside, moths dying in droves in the autumn, the fire consuming the theatre, and finally perhaps the most important scene in the novel, the "Heavenly River" descending from the sky straight into Simamura's soul. Kawabata writes with such precision and uses not a single unecessary word that it is as if this slim volume holds an entire world within it. Regrettably this translation, the only one available in English, is incredibly poor. Edward Seidensicker is know for the quantity of his translations from Japanese, he tackled a ton of Japanese classics from authors as diverse as Kawabata and Lady Murasaki. He is not known for the quality of his translations. Case in a point, the ending: Seidensticker translates Komako's wail as "She's crazy", whereas in at least the Russian translation and the Esperanto translation it's rendered as "She'll go crazy" (future tense), which is important because it makes a reference to an earlier part of the novel. As Simamura is jostled in the crowd, slips, and has his rendevous with destiny, Seidensticker translates this section in an almost comical fashion, as if Simamura was a cartoon character slipping on a banana peel. Seidensticker wasn't really capable of translating a novel such as SNOW COUNTRY, which was written in a very austere and frigid style befitting its setting, because he couldn't help trying to add unnecessary warmth and texture to Kawabata's novel. I first read SNOW COUNTRY in the translation into Esperanto by Konisi Gaku, and I would in fact recommend that for Westerners. If English is one's only language, however, Seidensticker's translation, poor as it may be, is unfortunately the only option. Independent of which translation one reads, it does bear saying that, just as with every other creation of the Japanese language, SNOW COUNTRY undoubtedly loses some of its essence in translation. Also, Japanese etiquette may seem nonsensical to Westerners. I notice I wasn't the only one driven mad by Komako saying "I'm going now," Simamura responding "Ok, fine, go," and then "She sat down." or Komako retorting "No, I'm staying." Nonetheless, these are no reasons not to experience this jewel of world literature. I wholeheartedly recommend SNOW COUNTRY and truly hope that it becomes better known in the West. This novel leaves an indelible mark in one's soul, and its tragic passion juxtaposed with an uplifiting glimpse of higher reality stay with the reader long after Simamura is left under the Milky Way.
Rating: 
Summary: Subtle and Simple, but it offers alot
Review: The plot is subtle, as it is was intended. The symbols and themes are countless. The language is simple but beautiful. This book is excellent if you don't go into it expecting it to be action-packed.
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