Yasumari Kawabata - the Sound of the Mountain

Toward the end of The Sound of the Mountain Shingo has a "series of dreams" that become ever more strange and sexual particularly regarding his obvious attraction to his daughter-in-law Kikoku who is neglected and ill-treated by his son shuichi Shingo is aware of the sexual content of his dreams and is ashamed again a major theme of this novel and makes me think that this seemingly domestic story is in fact Kawabata's trenchent analysis of postwa Japanese society - not that this novel is an allegory it's more sophisticated than that it's as if he is trying to get at a universal truth through a single example or instance - really isn't that what great literature does? Otherwise Madame Bovary would be just a story of a frustrated wife and hamlet of a troubled teen - not that K is on this level but he is trying to come to terms with his entire culture in a time of great upheaval and he does a great job.

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