Review 498: Kokoro

Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a classic Japanese work of literature, published in 1914. The first part is about the narrator meeting and befriending a man who he calls Sensei. The narrator is a student at a university in Tokyo. Sensei becomes someone he is fascinated by, who was reluctant to open up to friendship. Slowly they do become friends and when prodded Sensei will not discuss his past. Sensei doesn’t work, has a wife and maid, and visits the gravesite of a friend every month. He is an intellectual and the two often discuss philosophical idea.

The second part is concerned with the narrator’s family. His father is ill and he has gone back home in the country several times to visit with his father. The summer months he also goes home to stay and visit. After graduation he returns to his home and this part is very concerned with his father’s health, particularly after the Emperor falls ill and dies. During these days the narrator gets a letter from Sensei.

This letter takes up the last portion of the book. It is a recounting of Sensei’s past. It has to be one of the longest letters in a book ever.

This is not a book of action, rather one of contemplation and character study. One can take moral reasoning from this book as well, but that is not fully understood until the last.

While listening to this book as an audiobook I thought it was all one narrative. Upon finishing I read more about the book and found that it is described as three short stories. Perhaps, but it is about the same characters and the time line progresses through these three stories. It is more like three parts within a larger work, although conserving each as a short story does help to explain the seemingly abrupt endings.