As the so-caled masterpiece of one of Japan's most renowned writer, and one of the only two who have been awared a Nobel prize for literature (so far), I had pretty high expectations for this book. Neverthless, no sooner had I started reading than I found myself stuck into a nondescript, monotonous narrative.

Throughout the book I've been kept on hold for some action or event that never really happened (except maybe the fire at the end).

For a Nobelist, Kawabata lacks a talent for rich, vivid and accurate descriptions of his own country, in a way that Alan Booth could capture so perfectly in "The Roads to Sata" or "Looking for the Lost".

The plot, which is based on a romance and geisha atmosphere, leaves a lot to be desired, especially compared to the superb and gripping "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden.

If even Western writers can depict better Japanese landscapes and traditional lifestyles, or render the spirit of time and people in a more emotionally compulsive way than this giant of Japanese literature, the problem might just reside in the translation itself. Seidensticker is, however, one of the most famous translator of Japanese literature into English. I'll have to read the Japanese version to tell. But the story is so basic and boring that it can hardly be much better. If you are to read it in English, you'd as well give it a miss, except if you want to say you've read Kawabata.