Daniel del Real
Moderator
As I witnessed the development of the novel I reaffirmed my thoughts of the early pages: It conjugates the slow flow, beautifully detailed , full of melancholy Japanese classic novella and the shadow following angst, the cloudy days and existential desperation of the psychological novel. In this master piece, representative of the Meiji Era in Japan, Soseki portrays the life in the capitol as well as in the country of a new Japan who with mesmerized eyes contemplates the world outside their frontiers and how life is from the outside.
The novel is the story of a young student who is the narrator and a middle aged man whom he calls Sensei (Soseki does not use any name in the novel) who met each other in a beach they both visit frequently. After seeing each other several times they start to talk and become good friends, despite the rigid and serious attitude of Sensei. The first part of the books narrates this situation and how they become closer to each other. This is why the young student discovers Sensei going to a cemetery every month to visit a tomb. Sensei, sets himself as a social reject; he doesn’t work and lives alone with his wife in a house in Tokyo. This one of the reasons he denies explaining the narrator why he visits this tomb monthly and why this experience is link to an obscure past. The first part ends where the young students goes back to his native town to take care of his father who has a terminal illness.
The second part, the shorter of the book, happens in the narrator’s native house, while he and his family take care of his father. He writes down to sensei but he never receives any answer. Some day he receives a telegram from Sensei telling him to go back to Tokyo because the time to talk about his past has finally arrived. He writes back telling him he can’t go right away because of his father’s situation. A few days later he receives a very long letter from Sensei, where he tells him the story of his past and explains why his life is so full of angst, suffering and the feeling of being already dead.
I’m not going to tell anything of this story since this is the climax of the book that you need to figure yourself, but I have to tell you is fascinating how Soseki guides you through Sensei’s mind giving you a physical and psychological explanation of all the dark feelings that invade Sensei.
An amazing novel, full of feelings and sensations that shows how important can be for a man the sense of moral responsibility. A tale that takes us to find the heart of everything that surrounds and integrates our life. *****
The novel is the story of a young student who is the narrator and a middle aged man whom he calls Sensei (Soseki does not use any name in the novel) who met each other in a beach they both visit frequently. After seeing each other several times they start to talk and become good friends, despite the rigid and serious attitude of Sensei. The first part of the books narrates this situation and how they become closer to each other. This is why the young student discovers Sensei going to a cemetery every month to visit a tomb. Sensei, sets himself as a social reject; he doesn’t work and lives alone with his wife in a house in Tokyo. This one of the reasons he denies explaining the narrator why he visits this tomb monthly and why this experience is link to an obscure past. The first part ends where the young students goes back to his native town to take care of his father who has a terminal illness.
The second part, the shorter of the book, happens in the narrator’s native house, while he and his family take care of his father. He writes down to sensei but he never receives any answer. Some day he receives a telegram from Sensei telling him to go back to Tokyo because the time to talk about his past has finally arrived. He writes back telling him he can’t go right away because of his father’s situation. A few days later he receives a very long letter from Sensei, where he tells him the story of his past and explains why his life is so full of angst, suffering and the feeling of being already dead.
I’m not going to tell anything of this story since this is the climax of the book that you need to figure yourself, but I have to tell you is fascinating how Soseki guides you through Sensei’s mind giving you a physical and psychological explanation of all the dark feelings that invade Sensei.
An amazing novel, full of feelings and sensations that shows how important can be for a man the sense of moral responsibility. A tale that takes us to find the heart of everything that surrounds and integrates our life. *****
