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The Lake

by Yasunari Kawabata
The Lake - Thryft
The Lake - Thryft

Obsession's pursuit amid reality's harsh contrasts.

If you're drawn to the somber poetry of human yearning, "The Lake" might touch a profound nerve. Kawabata has woven a narrative that mirrors the fragmented nature of dreams and memory, assigning beauty an ethereal, almost unattainable quality. This book paints the intensity of obsession and the ache of desire with an almost haiku-like precision, making it a stirring read for those who appreciate literature that marries depth with brevity.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.

The Lake

by Yasunari Kawabata
Condition guide

Book Condition Guide

Books in Like New Condition

This book may contain very minor cosmetic defects, but it is in pristine condition. There should be no yellowing, no foxing, no water damage, and no annotations of any kind on the cover and the pages. For paperbacks, there should not be any crease marks on the spine. This book is good as new — lucky you!

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

Books in Very Good Condition

This book has been used, but it is still in a clean condition. There should be no foxing or annotations of any kind on the inner pages, but a sparse amount may be present on the cover, title pages, or outside edges of the book. There should be no water damage of any kind. For paperbacks, there may be light crease marks on the spine.

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

Books in Good Condition

We do our best to ensure the quality of our books, but there is no escaping the wear and tear that comes with time. Slight foxing and some annotations may be present on the pages and the cover. There should be no water damage of any kind. For paperbacks, there may be several crease marks on the spine.

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

Books in Well Read Condition

This is a well-read book, which means that the previous owner probably really enjoyed it! The cover and pages may include moderate foxing and annotations, but the text is not obscured and still readable. Moderate cosmetic defects and minor water damage may be present on the edges of the book. For paperbacks, there may be multiple crease marks on the spine.

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

 

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ISBN: 9780870113659
Authors: Yasunari Kawabata
Publisher: Kodansha International
Date of Publication: 1984-01-01
Format: Paperback
Goodreads rating: 3.61
(rated by 2393 readers)

Description

The Lake is the history of an obsession. It traces a man's sad pursuit of an unattainable perfection, a beauty out of reach, admired from a distance, unconsummated. Homeless, a fugitive from an ambiguous crime, his is an incurable longing that drives him to shadow nameless women in the street and hide in ditches as they pass above him, beautiful and aloof. For their beauty is not of this world, but of a dream--the voice of a girl he meets in a Turkish bath is "an angel's," the figures of two students he follows seem to "glide over the green grass that hid their knees." Reality is the durable ugliness that is his constant companion and is symbolized in the grotesque deformity of the hero's feet. And it is the irreconcilable nature of these worlds that explains the strangely dehumanized, shadowy quality of the eroticism that pervades this novel. In a sense The Lake is a formless novel, a "happening," making it one of the most modern of all Kawabata's works. Just as the hero's interest might be caught by some passing stranger, so the course of the novel swerves abruptly from present to past, memory shades into hallucination, dreams break suddenly into daylight. It is an extraordinary performance of free association, made all the more astonishing for the skill with which these fragments are resolved within the completed tapestry.
 

Obsession's pursuit amid reality's harsh contrasts.

If you're drawn to the somber poetry of human yearning, "The Lake" might touch a profound nerve. Kawabata has woven a narrative that mirrors the fragmented nature of dreams and memory, assigning beauty an ethereal, almost unattainable quality. This book paints the intensity of obsession and the ache of desire with an almost haiku-like precision, making it a stirring read for those who appreciate literature that marries depth with brevity.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.