Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #747498 in Books
• Published on: 1997-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Synopsis
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Customer Reviews

Gentle but Haunting
This is the most gentle and quiet novel by Mishima I have read. It is a story about an island love affair in a timeless atmosphere. However, if you dig deep as reader there are still the trade-mark under-currents of desire and frustration. The novel is beautifully written and has a gentle rhythm as its title suggests. It gave me a fascinating insight into another culture and way of thinking. As always with Mishima there is sadness amidst beauty.

A beautifully crafted and timeless love story.
The Sound of the Waves tells the story of Shinji a fisherman from a small fishing village in Japan and his love for the beautiful Hatsue.Set against the background of post-war Japan this simply told story is possibly one of Mishima's greatest works. The sound and shape of his prose is probably never more beautifully demonstated than in this novel. Written in concise, minimilistic narrative Mishima shows us that his writing was at his best when it was at its plainest. The book is a beautifully crafted and timeless love story, if not his most accessible work.

An Often-Overlooked Masterpiece
People often call Mishima's highly acclaimed "Sea Of Fertility" tetralogy his crowning achievement, but I'd have to disagree. "The Sound Of Waves" is the deeply moving story of Shinji and Matsue - Shinji a simple fisherman and Matsue the daughter of the village's richest citizen - whose love it blighted by the wagging tongues of the other people of the village.

Whilst occasionally dipping into seemingly self-indulgent poetry and making several redundant descriptions of people and places, this piece of art (for that is what it is) is truly a testament to the great talent that Yukio Mishima was, and is a prime example of why he is still so well-read by people of all ages even today.