Over the past week, I had been reading THE LAKE by Kawabata, the 1968 Japanese laureate. "Compact and immense...hypnotic and shocking," says the blurb. But I was disappointed reading it. But blame me rather than the author for this experience.
A young man stalking beauties on the street must have been a daring topic in 1954 when Kawabata wrote it. No longer so. The erotica in the novel was of course shocking at that time, but by today's standard, it's simply rudimentary.
Gimpei, the protagonist, comes across as a pathetic, almost ludicrous creature.
How sad time has killed both the author and his work!
MRINAL BOSE
