Give it a read. It’s a severely underrated piece of Japanese literature by an often overlooked author. I think it goes undervalued in the west because some of the cultural references are a bit difficult to understand and the characters are a little hard to keep track of in the beginning.
I read it but decided I didn’t understand it fully and gave it another read after researching the tradition of the Japanese tea ceremony. I knew there was something deeper about the novel that I missed on the first read. It blew me away the second time through.
The book explores the influence of the dead on the grieving, as well as the severity of Japanese social expectations, and it does it in a beautiful, simplistic prose that evoked in me deep thought.
A must for any reader of Japanese literature.
by igorika