Kusamakura [Grass Pillow]
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Kusamakura [Grass Pillow] Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 192 ratings
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A stunning new English translation - the first in more than 40 years - of a major novel by the father of modern Japanese fiction.

Natsume Soseki's Kusamakura - meaning “grass pillow” - follows its nameless young artist-narrator on a meandering walking tour of the mountains. At the inn at a hot-spring resort, he has a series of mysterious encounters with Nami, the lovely young daughter of the establishment. Nami, or "beauty", is the center of this elegant novel, the still point around which the artist moves and the enigmatic subject of Soseki's word painting. In the author's words, Kusamakura is "a haiku-style novel, that lives through beauty". Written at a time when Japan was opening its doors to the rest of the world, Kusamakura turns inward, to the pristine mountain idyll and the taciturn lyricism of its courtship scenes, enshrining the essence of old Japan in a work of enchanting literary nostalgia.

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  1. Listening Length
    7 hours and 1 minute
  2. Author
    Natsume Soseki, see all
  3. Narrator
    Kotaro Watanabe, see all
  4. Audible release date
    August 10, 2021
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Penguin Audio
  7. ASIN
    B08R96SY9B
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 7 hours and 1 minute
Author Natsume Soseki, Meredith McKinney - translator
Narrator Kotaro Watanabe, Elizabeth Jasicki
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date August 10, 2021
Publisher Penguin Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B08R96SY9B
Best Sellers Rank #159,543 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#957 in Psychological Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#3,986 in Classic Literature
#5,815 in Psychological Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
192 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Crazy Fox
5.0 out of 5 stars A Midspring Night's Dream
Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2008
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"Kusamakura" is surely one of the weirdest novels of the twentieth century. A very early work by Natsume Soseki, who would go on to be one of Japan's foremost novelists, it's a pioneering one-shot experiment with what the author himself called a "Haiku novel" years before Kawabata Yasunari got the credit for such with his Palm-of-the-Hand Stories. A novel without a plot, where nothing of note really happens, and yet it's an endlessly engaging tale. Or is it a philosophical treatise on aesthetics narrated in the form of a story? Breathtakingly ethereal one moment, it's hilariously crass the next. In genre, it's a heady fusion of the Western novel and the Eastern poem equally at home with Percy Shelley and Yosa Buson, John Millais and Katsushika Hokusai, Oscar Wilde and the Tales of Ise, Christ and Bodhidharma. Staunchly nostalgic and even a tad traditionalist in an age when such things were being pell-mell thrown along the wayside, and yet modernist about a decade or so before its time--arguably ever bit as experimental as Joyce's "Ulysses" in many ways and yet a hundred times more readable and, yes, enjoyable. Indeed, everything I've said up to now may make "Kusamakura" seem rather portentous, but as a work of literature it's utterly unpretentious and approachable. It also so happens, as you may have guessed, to be one of my all time personal favorites.

Which is why nobody could be more thrilled to see "Kusamakura" newly translated and published by Penguin--the folks who have been making classics approachable for decades. Meredith McKinney's new translation here is nothing less than excellent. Unpretentious as it is, "Kusamakura" is nowadays something of a hard nut to crack linguistically speaking, filled as it is with deliberate archaisms of an ornate nature on the one hand and cockney-esque colloquialisms on the other (among other slight puzzlers now obscure in contemporary printed Japanese) and yet McKinney handles Soseki's many voices and sometimes elliptical narration with a surefire grasp of the language and manages to convey the same in highly fluent and idiomatic English. It's carefully accurate and true to the original and yet makes itself at home in its new language to a degree that seems natural and easy but must in fact have entailed much hard work and scholarly care. This edition is also judiciously supplemented with unobtrusive but helpful endnotes following up on Soseki's principal references, and the introduction does a fine job of adequately situating this idiosyncratic classic in the context of Soseki's larger opus and of contextualizing both within the larger framework of Japanese literature and history at the turn of the (last) century without unduly overburdening the book.

In short, this is a wonderful edition of a wonderful book--totally flawless. Okay, not totally; when you first open the book and glance at the half-title page, you'll see in the little blurb the dates for the Meiji period incorrectly given as 1868-1914 instead of 1868-1912. That little nitpick aside, though, this fine book is going to be the definitive edition of Natsume Soseki's early masterpiece for decades to come. Even if you've already read this novel in its previous English version (available in a number of printings, including  The Three-Cornered World (Peter Owen Modern Classic)  and  Three Corner World (Unesco Collection of Representative Works. Japanese Series.) ), I highly recommend this new and vastly improved one. And if you've never come across "Kusamakura" before at all, well then, the open road to the deep south awaits you, grass pillow and all!
63 people found this helpful
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Margareta Boege
5.0 out of 5 stars Kusamakura
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2013
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As he turns thirty a man goes to a village in the mountains and thinks about art, tries to find his own identity among the western and the traditional (japanese and chinese) ways of creating art and looking at the world, describes the nature that surrounds him and the few people that live there.

Kusamakura is very poetical. I wish I could read japanese, but even in transation the words flow beautifully and you can sense the changes in tone, and you find yourself in a magical world. I particulary remember a scene where he is observing the girl, how he describes her and thinks about if beauty is better described as still or in movement. He tries to paint her but something is missing. And then there is the last scene...

Of course not everyone will like it (but this is true of every book) so I tried to tell you why I do (I am sorry if I can not be more elocuent but my english is not very good). If you like books with a lot of action, or if the subjects I mentioned above do not interest you, this book is not for you. But it is not true that you have to know a lot to enjoy this book, I myself do not know much and I loved it.
10 people found this helpful
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ilovetomatoes
4.0 out of 5 stars A hard book to get into if you do not like reading flowery details and do know old pop culture.
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2013
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If you are knowledgeable about old pop culture (Japanese and European) and know all about Soseki's work, then go ahead and buy this book. Do not bother with reading my review. I am reaching out to unsuspecting readers who will have to buy this book for their Japanese literature class. This is the most boring book I have ever read. The only parts you will like in this book is the dialogue between the characters (because they are very humorous, especially the conversation between the barber and the narrator). However, there are very few of them. The book consist of details after details of what the narrator sees and how he feels about it. He will make constant (old) pop culture references to these images. If you are curious as to how old these pop culture references are then see Crazy Fox's review. If you are into that kind of stuff then, please by all means, enjoy the book. Other than that, I guarantee the only parts worth reading is the dialogues and the last chapter.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Camila Navarro Motta
5.0 out of 5 stars Natsume Soseki: Soseki e a Sociedade Japonesa
Reviewed in Brazil on September 2, 2020
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Natsume Soseki possui um olhar crítico e reflexivo para observar as inovações e as tradições em uma sociedade em desenvolvimento.
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Ayesha Dhurue
5.0 out of 5 stars The Essential Weightless Read Ever
Reviewed in India on January 15, 2020
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This book remains too ephemeral. And yet it is profoundly infused with the feeling of living in (or with) the present. It’s a book that goes on changing as a self but its characteristic motif is of lightness and timelessness. Kusamakura is Natsume Soseki’s plunge into experimental literature. It’s a first on many counts and will be the longest-lived.

It’s a book that realizes its extraordinariness but not in the way that most books do. The present is all that the book is willing to give up and that’s what makes it a meditative read. When you step into the world of a fictional character, you’re taken through objects as if in reality. You explore new horizons, observe the map of the character’s world which a novel allows you to investigate.

And even if you come out of this book without feeling inspired or transformed. Know that to read it is to let go of the chaos that resides everywhere around you. To read it is to appreciate stillness which grows with every page. And there’s nothing more revealing and rewarding for a reader - to be the one at the receiving end of this beautiful transaction.
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Ayesha Dhurue
5.0 out of 5 stars The Essential Weightless Read Ever
Reviewed in India on January 15, 2020
This book remains too ephemeral. And yet it is profoundly infused with the feeling of living in (or with) the present. It’s a book that goes on changing as a self but its characteristic motif is of lightness and timelessness. Kusamakura is Natsume Soseki’s plunge into experimental literature. It’s a first on many counts and will be the longest-lived.

It’s a book that realizes its extraordinariness but not in the way that most books do. The present is all that the book is willing to give up and that’s what makes it a meditative read. When you step into the world of a fictional character, you’re taken through objects as if in reality. You explore new horizons, observe the map of the character’s world which a novel allows you to investigate.

And even if you come out of this book without feeling inspired or transformed. Know that to read it is to let go of the chaos that resides everywhere around you. To read it is to appreciate stillness which grows with every page. And there’s nothing more revealing and rewarding for a reader - to be the one at the receiving end of this beautiful transaction.
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2 people found this helpful
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Aubrey Cameron
5.0 out of 5 stars This was a gosh darn amazing book. If you like turn of the 19th ...
Reviewed in Canada on August 31, 2017
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This was a gosh darn amazing book. If you like turn of the 19th to 20th century history and art, this book is for you.

The quality of the book shipped to me was fair. Somebody had written in the first chapter and essay bits but stopped. Maybe a student that had to read the first bit? Regardless, it was well worth the price for a used physical book.
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Thomas
5.0 out of 5 stars A lyrical masterpiece
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2017
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It took me about 30 pages to warm to this book, once I got settled into it and it opened up what a superb read. A lyrical masterpiece, my second book by Soseki after previously reading Kokoro. I didn't know what to expect but I must say that after a slow start I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A very intimate and beautiful book, evocative and artistic. I am glad I stuck with it. It ended up being one of my absolute favourites.
6 people found this helpful
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Enriques_Castelnuovo
5.0 out of 5 stars New Translation of a 'Haiku-Style' Japanese novel during the Russo-Japanese War 1904-05
Reviewed in Japan on July 9, 2017
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This is a new English translation
of "Kusamakura" （草枕）
of Soseki NATSUME（夏目漱石） (1867 - 1916)
by Meredith McKinney (1950 - ).

Soseki NATSUME is one of the best-known novelist in Japan
as well as Haruki MURAKAMI（村上春樹） (1949 - ).
'Kusa-Makura' literally means 'Grass Pillow'
that is symbolic pillow made of the grass
suggesting that the user is on traveling.

In 1906 Soseki NATSUME
started writing this novel on July 26
and finished writing on August 9.
So he has completed it in fifteen days.
At that time he has been teaching English literature
at Tokyo Imperial University and First Higher School
(Both are now consist of Tokyo University.)

To tell the main point I would think
Soseki NATSUME confesses his 'credo'
as a novelist or as an artist in this book.

He writes on page 32

'the artist is one who lives in a three-cornered world,
in which the corner that the average person would call
"common sense" has been sheared off
from the ordinary four-square world that the normal inhabit.'

Hence Alan Turney (1938 - 2006) translated this Japanese novel
into English for the first time in 1965
with the title "The Three-Cornered World".
The most celebrated pianist Glenn Gould (1932 - 1982),
known as a revolutionary interpretation
of "Goldberg-Variations" of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750),
loved "The Three-Cornered World".
But if Gould had been still alive,
he would prefer the original Japanese title "Kusamakura",
I consider.

The setting times of this novel by Soseki NATSUME
are years of 1904-05 during the Russo-Japanese War.
'Kyuichi', the cousin of 'Nami' that is the heroine of the novel,
goes to the battle field of Manchuria at the end of the novel.
It reminds me two famous novels
"The Magic Mountain" of Thomas Mann (1875 - 1955) and
"Demian" of Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962).
At the railway station 'Mr.Shihoda','Shihoda's daughter' i.e.'Nami',
Nami's elder brother and "I" i.e. a painter of the novel's hero
say farewell to Kyuichi who is a soldier going to the front of the war.

Old Mr.Shihoda's words of parting are impressive for me.
He says

'Death is not the only way to serve one's nation.
I plan to live a couple of years yet.
We'll be able to meet again.'

Lastly the setting places of the novel are
in Tensui -Town of Tamana-City in Kumamoto-Prefecture,
the south-west district in Japan
even though it is not specified.
From 1896 through 1900 Soseki NATSUME had taught English
in Fifth Higher School in Kumamoto-City.
For that period he twice visited 'Oama-Onsen'(onsen mean hot springs) in Tensui-Town
by walking which is about 14 kilometers distance from the center of Kumamoto-City.
Oama is called in the novel 'Nakoi'.
Now we can drive from Kumamoto-City to Oama across the Mount Kimpo.

I hope everybody reads "Kusamakura" and visits Oama if it is possible.
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