One of the most famous works of Japanese literature, Kokoro is a masterpiece exploring themes of loneliness and the death of the Meiji era. It was also really depressing. So while intellectually I know it was a good book, it wasn't really all that enjoyable to read. That's just my own personal pre...
You like Japan? Read Natsume Soseki.I hope I don't sound racist when I recommend this to people who like that "Japanese melancholic vibe" as if all Japanese people are morose or anything. I grew up loving anime, and if you are familiar with anime, you'll know anime is weird but hilarious all the sam...
Kokoro is a heavy novel. The true story lies with Sensei, and his part is elaborated in the third part. This is a story about loneliness, trust, family loyalty, traditions, and so much more. The ending is depressing! Life is too for that matter, and the feelings and thoughts of Sensei are intensely ...
The story is told in the first person by an unnamed man looking back on his friendship with an older man he calls Sensei. Our narrator during the time of the retrospective is a young guileless man who is student living in Tokyo away from his parents and living a life apart from them without any fo...
a J-lit classic that "everybody has read," considered foundational in some ways to modern Japanese identity, yet understandably has lost a little bit of its gleam in our more stimulus-focused, self-centered world. a character that embodied everything about pre-war values / egoism vs. group issue to ...
It's funny but I find myself returning to Japanese literature if I've been either feeling unsettled in my reading or life. It makes a great palate cleanser for me. This is also a return to this book. The first time I read it I was far from being in the right place to appreciate it and only read abou...
I am deeply drawn into the atmosphere in Kokoro. There is something so "Japanese" about the book that I could not describe. Quiet, slow, serene, beautiful and seemingly calm, yet somehow so strong, so unsettling, stirring my heart. I enjoyed this feeling, the deeply unsettled emotions.The story flow...
I found the first two parts of this book compellingly brilliant -- and had decided that the book was an allegory. The narrator of Parts I-II, who speaks in the first person, is not the author (note the ages/dates), but an exemplum of Japanese Modernity -- where Sensei is an exemplum of the Meiji per...
A wonderful excursion into the realm (and life) of loneliness.I'd happily give it 4.7 if Goodreads would let me. It's a bit dry here and there but still well worth reading.
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