Kokoro
Ratings68
Average rating4.2
I think i'm starting to warm up to Japanese literature, most of the novels are short and powerful.
UPDATED: probably my favorite book of all time. Especially interesting that in a story where the downfall of all characters stems from wanting to protect their reputation and put up a facade to others, it ends with sensei asking the narrator to protect his reputation from his wife even after his death.
Such a banger tho
OLD: 4.5/5 Incredibly good book. Only gripe is that it never comes back and continues the story of what happens with the narrator after he finishes reading sensei's letter. Also for whoever wrote the review that “sensei changes his whole life for something that would barely raise an eyebrow today” what in the fuck are you talking about? Although the book comments on how culture has changed, even today most people would agree that essentially inducing your best friend to commit suicide would raise a little more than an eyebrow.
Besides that, awesome book and I love soseki's writing style
Creo que las primeras dos partes podían haber sido mucho más cortas. El libro de verdad me enganchó mucho en el tercer acto. Entiendo como fungió de inspiración para Murakami et al. Creo que me sirvió que por casualidad he estado viendo otros medios japoneses(shogun, lol) que me hizo considerar más las normas culturales del país y así tmb entender mejor por qué todos los personajes se niegan a ser directos y me cagan. Bellísima edición como siempre de Impedimenta.
(spoiler)
por cierto: qué chingados tienen los japoneses con triángulos amorosos suicidas?
A love twisted by a moment of weakness is how id describe sensei towards his wife and the boy he's coming clean to in the hopes of letting someone in after years of being tormented by his friends death.
In “Kokoro,” Soseki has written a beautiful, introspective novel that examines the weight of one's past upon their spirit. The first half of the book outlines the relationship between a young narrator and “Sensei,” his mentor whose troubling past has embittered him toward the rest of humanity. These chapters are deliberately unsatisfying to the reader, as Sensei's past remains untold and the narrator's search for worldly guidance is never quite fulfilled. (I won't treat this next part as a spoiler as it is in the Narrator's Introduction...) This section culminates in Sensei's eventual suicide, and all is finally revealed in his farewell letter to our narrator, which occupies the rest of the novel. Here, “Kokoro” deftly becomes a letter not to the narrator but to the reader, as we feel the grasp of humanity's darkest traits. “Kokoro” is a heavy book, dealing with such issues as death, deception, and loneliness, but it treads emotional ground that feels uncanny in its familiarity. Despite being written in the early 1900s, the characters' struggles with family, unemployment and academic accomplishment also appear as relevant today as ever before. The book's curious structure may alienate some readers, but the whirlwind of emotions give the narrative a quick pace. The book's ending may seem abrupt, but the story will follow you long beyond the final page.