Readalong Two: 'The Sound of the Mountain' by Yasunari Kawabata

After trying a modern novel for our first group read, it's time to move on to something  a little more classic for the second one, and Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata is most certainly one of the big names in modern Japanese literature, with his seat in our own pantheon secure :)  The Sound of the Mountain is my favourite Kawabata work - I hope you all liked it too...

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I looked online to see what I could point you towards, but there isn't much freely available (at least not from legal sources...).  I did find a few interesting bits and pieces, though...

'The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket' (tr. unknown)

'The Pomegranate' (tr. Edward Seidensticker)

'Japan, the Beautiful and Myself' (tr. Edward Seidensticker)
 - Kawabata's Nobel Prize acceptance speech

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I trust you all enjoyed the book - here are a few questions I thought might interest you:

1) Is Shingo's lack of interference in his children's lives justified or lazy?
2) Why do you think Fusako is so angry with her father?
3) Is there a special connection between Shingo and Kikuko, or is it all in his mind?
4) Do you think Shingo and Yasuko have a good marriage?  Why (not)?
5) Why has Kawabata placed such an emphasis on Shingo's dreams?

Feel free to leave comments below, or on any of the reviews of the book - and speaking of reviews...  Please use the linky below to post links to your review of the novel!  As we know what the book is, just put your blog name in the first space and the link in the second.  Let's see how you found this one ;)