Kusamakura [Grass Pillow]

By: Natsume Soseki, Meredith McKinney - translator

Narrated by: Kotaro Watanabe, Elizabeth Jasicki

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.

©2020 Natsume Soseki (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Is there a plot? Yes. Does it matter? No!

I found that this book drew me in, not because of strong story, but because it didn't really matter. This book is so evocative of Japan in the early 1900s. The country had opened up to the Western World and you can feel the tension between Eastern and Western cultures all through the book.

This book has art as the main character is a poet and painter. Haiku are sprinkled in the book. The main character paints in Western style. He himself comes with that cultural tension, and sometimes some humor.

There is a young woman in the book and she is an essential part of the story. How much? I'd suggest delving into this book to find out.

The narrator has a very strong Japanese accent and it was my first time listening to a book narrated by him. It took me close to an hour to really get used to him. But he just made it more authentic. Be patient!

Puzzling choice of narrator

The decision to have a non-native speaker narrate this audiobook is puzzling and very distracting. Even though English isn't my first language, I found it difficult to engage with the book because of this. I would only recommend this audiobook to those who, like me, are already highly motivated to listen to every Natsume Soseki book on Audible.

Aesthetic, but didn't strike me as overly deep

The narrator was not my favorite, and perhaps I would have enjoyed the book more had a different narrator been used. As it was, I didn't find the aesthetic musings particularly engaging after the protagonist arrived at the hotsprings. Even so, I thought it was a fairly enjoyable listen, even if only to put myself in that foreign world of the past. I am a Cat remains one of my favorite works, but Grass Pillow I found fairly average.

Please use native level narrators

I was unable to listen to this due to the narrator's accent. Had to switch to a paper book.

This beautiful novel deserves a better narration

As enjoyable as the novel was, it was an absolute ordeal enduring the narration. Flat, lifeless reading, which made it especially difficult to follow during dialogues