The Sound of the Mountain - Yasunari Kawabata

Forgetfulness and loss lay pressing against the nape of Ogata Shingo's neck. How much responsibility must a parent take these days for Children's marriages? He wonders. Out of a translucent web of attachments, Noble Prize winning author has crafted a novel that is a powerful, serenely observed meditation in the relentless march of time.

Shingo observes and questions his relations with his family members, his wife Yasuko, his philandering son Shuichi, his daughter-in-law Kikuko, and his married daughter Fusako, who has left her husband and returned to her family home with her two young daughters. Shingo realizes that he has not truly been an involved and loving husband and father.

A subdued yet compelling book! Lyrical and poetic too, with nature, reflecting on age old blues. The theme of death permeates this book. It is as if the author is preparing himself for his own demise, especially running in tandem with another theme, that of suicide. And that Kawabata is in fact searching for a way in which to make that ultimate separation from life. Thus I was not at all surprised to read that Kawabata committed suicide in 1972.