Rating: 7.0/10.
A fairly short classic novel, winning a Nobel Prize in literature, set in the 1930s in Japan. The novel opens with a train that emerges out of a tunnel into a snow country, or the northern coast of Japan, into an onsen hot springs town. The narrator, Shimamura, is from Tokyo, a wealthy and lecherous man who enjoys his time with several visits with the geisha in the town that he meets. There is Yoko, who is taking care of an older man, and Komako, who is a young geisha that he tries to seduce.
Although the book is only 175 pages, it is quite dense and slow going since not much of a plot happens. The author buids an atmosphere through short scenery descriptions and dialogue exchanges, but there are a few flashbacks, and in the dialogue, people are not named, so it is not clear who is speaking, which makes it quite hard to follow. After about 60 pages I’m not sure what the point of the story is.
