Is Yasunari Kawabata the most overrated author in the history of literature? Well when you consider he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1968, he's certainly sitting pretty to take a big hit. And of course sitting pretty is so much of what his novels are about. Open his books and you will have to wade through descriptions of sunrises and sundowns, of glints of light that "seem" this or have the "aspect" of that. Then, of course, you get to the crux of the matter where something is "so beautiful it is almost sad" or "almost lonely". The Nobel committee apparently gave him the prize "for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind". Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to what the Swedes know about the Japanese mind, but the Japanese populace have my sincerest sympathies if the Swedes are on to something I know nothing about.
So is he the most overrated? A most emphatic YES!
Written in reference to 'Beauty and Sadness' and 'Snow Country'.
Posted by Joe at March 16, 2004 12:40 PMKicking ass, blissfully kicking ass, angstly kicking ass, but kicking ass. Now hide the smoking gun before you get told off for being too forthright!
Posted by: martin at March 16, 2004 12:54 PM