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BOOK REVIEW: Kokoro by Natsume Soseki
After reading Murakami’s Kafka On The Shore, I wanted to read more of the Japanese Literature. Somehow, I stumbled upon KOKORO by Natsume Soseki. Published in 1914, Kokoro is considered to be Natsume Soseki’s finest novel which is all told in the first person though there are two different viewpoints. One more thing for the observation is that throughout the book, not a single character has the proper name. On reading Murakami’s books including Kafka On The Shore, Hear The Wind Sing, Pinball 1973 and now Kokoro, I feel that it is an enigmatic characteristic that Japanese writers like to follow and they demand this substitution from their readers by giving them a sense of mysteriousness. Even though it doesn’t matter to a reader for what a character is called because that character is not his creation, it is the writer’s but when a reader introduces those characters to his imagination, the presence of that mysteriousness can be felt inside his head.
Kokoro is divided into three parts; the first part ‘Sensei and I’ is narrated by a young student digressing on his friendship with an older mentor of his, whom he refers to as Sensei. This first section does an excellent job dissecting the aspects of human closeness and isolation, and how both are related to loneliness. The student wishes he could be closer to his mentor but fails realizes that Sensei feels a disdain for humanity. Sensei also is aware of the idolisation the youth has for him, and warns him not to feel these things, for they will only lead to disappointment. Some things about this mentor are left to be revealed in the latter half of the book.more
The second part of the book focuses on theme of self-loathing. The narrator has to leave the town and his mentor for his father’s illness is demanding too much of his attention. The author concentrates not only the life and death of a body but something that goes beyond just the life and death of the body. Something we call bonding. Bonding between two human beings. This is the part where the essence of the isolation on which the whole book is based, can be keenly observer by the reader.
Third part is narrated from Sensei’s point of view and his entitled, ‘Sensei and His Treatment’. In this part, a reader learns why and how Sensei started to disdain humanity. This part reveals Sensei’s past, his uncle’s betrayal to deny him any fortune. A new character named K, a childhood friend of Sensei. K is introduced reserved personality. He lives with walls all around him and refuses to let anyone come closer to him or to develop a special bond. K commits suicide and the contrast between both K and Sensei is in display, and everything becomes clear on why Sensei is living a life with no interest in it. The book ends on lower node when the previous narrator receives a letter from Sensei which might be the last thing he ever wrote.
This book, starts with same calmness as I talked about when reading Murakami’s Kafka On The Shore but author somehow, tangled with his all nameless characters around him, could not manage to continue the story with the same patience as he started. The book, especially Sensei’s life, is great example of how few incidents can affect a the whole life course of a human being and it is not the fate but a person’s mind who is responsible for conscious and subconscious happenings.
3 out of 5!
Read books by day and blogs about them at night. In his mid-twenties, been blogging about books for 5 years now.
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