by Yasunari Kawabata, E.G. Seidensticker
How does a book about a go game win the Nobel Prize for Literature? (Actually, the book itself didn't win the prize - Kawabata the author did, but this book is widely regarded as his best, and probably the one that sealed the Nobel for him.) You have to read this book to understand what it's really ...
This book does something that few books about games can manage. He takes an historical game, and includes all of the moves of that game, and makes these moves a core part of a great novel that deals with many themes. I can definitely understand that this book may not be very appealing to someone w...
Kawabata writes a factual account of a Go match, which at one level could be compared with the sort of journalism you see in a magazine like New in Chess. He presents all the moves in the game, and comments the play. Somehow he turns it into an emotionally gripping meditation on life, art, fate and ...