The Gate
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Review
A sensitive, skilfully written novel by the most widely read Japanese author of modern times. --The Guardian
Soseki s prose is so delicate that each page is like looking at a set of dreamy watercolours. --Sunday Telegraph
The Gate is not so much tragic or comic as a graceful balance between the dispiriting and the humorous . . . The Gate is surely the kind of writing we need a masterpiece of taste and clarity. Francis Mathy s translation must be warmly commended. --New Statesman
Soseki s prose is so delicate that each page is like looking at a set of dreamy watercolours. --Sunday Telegraph
The Gate is not so much tragic or comic as a graceful balance between the dispiriting and the humorous . . . The Gate is surely the kind of writing we need a masterpiece of taste and clarity. Francis Mathy s translation must be warmly commended. --New Statesman
Product Description
One of the central masterpieces of twentieth-century Japanese literature, The Gate describes the everyday world of the humble clerk Sosuke and his wife Oyone, living in quiet obscurity in a house at the bottom of a cliff. Seemingly cursed with the inability to have children, the couple find themselves having to take responsibility for Sosuke s younger brother Koroku. Oyone s health begins to fail, and news that her estranged ex-husband will be visiting nearby finally promotes a sense of crisis in Sosuke and forces him temporarily to quit his life of quiet domesticity. Highly prized for the beauty of its description of the understated love between Sosuke and Oyone, the novel has nevertheless remained in many ways mysterious. An analysis of the novel by Damian Flanagan casts fresh insights into its complex symbolism and ideas, establishing The Gate as one of the most profound works of the modern age. Published in cooperation with the Japan Foundation and the Sasakawa Foundation, The Gate is part of an international programme to bring one of Japan s most popular author to a new international audience.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A quiet tale of the understated love between a civil servant lacking in ambition and his 'passive' wife may seem like small beer in the big scale of events. You could dismiss this novel as a quaint story of domesticity with a charm like that of a period drama and not much more. But you would be wrong. Within the prosaic framework of a kitchen sink drama can be found the deepest questioning of the human condition. To someone brought up with a western imagination it would be easy to identify the behaviour of Sosuke, the novel's protagonist, as stoic resolution. A man who simply accepts the hand he has been dealt with in life and who recognises the futility in trying to alter his circumstances. But there is a darker side to his situation. His love for Oyone has been tainted and compromised by the betrayal of his best friend and the 'theft' of his wife.Thus Sosuke And Oyone come to see all their misfortunes, including the loss of their children, as the penalty for their forbidden love. In a moment of crisis, Sosuke goes through the 'Gate' to seek a spiritual enlightenment but discovers that he is not suited to the cloistered world of the monks. He does not reject religion, nor does he find himself lacking the will to follow the buddhist path, but he simply finds it less preferable to the life he has with Oyone despite the 'quiet desperation' in which they live their lives. Sosuke has achieved a form of serenity all the more potent because he fails to consciously recognise it. It is a serenity tinged with melancholy and imperfections but filled with love. While a bridge provides access to what would otherwise not be accessible, a gate is both an entrance to a new world and a barrier. Sosuke is able to cross the barrier but choses to return to the world he knows and loves. The path to enlightenment offered by religion consists not only in hardships but in sacrifices. Sosuke already experiences hardships in his everyday life but he is not prepared to sacrifice the love he has for Oyone. The path to enlightenment, it seems, can be a selfish one, while the path of love can be one of sacrifice and selflessness.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Natsume Soseki passed away in December 1916 and his books are still making an impact now.
'The Gate' tells the story of Sosuke and Oyone, a middle aged couple who unfortunately have been ex-communicated due to their relationship (Oyone was married previously). The story explores Sosuke and Oyone relationship, a relationship which initially began in passion but as the years have went by has became something more, something they both cherish very much in a quiet but loving manner. Everything changes when Sosuke's younger Koroku moves in with Sosuke and Oyone, they are faced with another face from their past, Koroku does not respect Sosuke because of the life he left behind to be with Oyone.
'The Gate' is about love, family, religion and finding your place in the world, Sosuke feels he has lost his place in the world and tries to change it.
'The Gate' is truly a beautiful book, Natsume Soseki's description of Japanese life is written beautifully, and his descriptions of their surroundings are breathtaking.
A lovely book that makes you thinks.
'The Gate' tells the story of Sosuke and Oyone, a middle aged couple who unfortunately have been ex-communicated due to their relationship (Oyone was married previously). The story explores Sosuke and Oyone relationship, a relationship which initially began in passion but as the years have went by has became something more, something they both cherish very much in a quiet but loving manner. Everything changes when Sosuke's younger Koroku moves in with Sosuke and Oyone, they are faced with another face from their past, Koroku does not respect Sosuke because of the life he left behind to be with Oyone.
'The Gate' is about love, family, religion and finding your place in the world, Sosuke feels he has lost his place in the world and tries to change it.
'The Gate' is truly a beautiful book, Natsume Soseki's description of Japanese life is written beautifully, and his descriptions of their surroundings are breathtaking.
A lovely book that makes you thinks.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Deeply sombre, The Gate has something of the atmosphere of Kokoro though satirical, it is much more subtly so, and less comically so, that I am a Cat.
After one reading and with no critical aid, this book is somewhat enigmatic. Not much happens and it is hard to pin down what Soseki might mean. However, Damian Flanagan's excellent introduction helps to introduce and draw attention to some of the philosophical content, symbolism and imagery, and his reading is quite convincing.
This is a carefully planned, controlled novel. As Flanagan convincingly points out, it can be understood as a satire on a specific kind of "will-less" person - rather than, for example, a treatise on the failure of religion to offer any escape or spiritual support.
It's a pity Peter Owen, the publisher, couldn't have gotten a new translation out of Flanagan as well as an introduction. It reads well in English, but the translation is neverthless about 30 years old, and Peter Owen does seem to be doing a major series of Soseki in English here.
After one reading and with no critical aid, this book is somewhat enigmatic. Not much happens and it is hard to pin down what Soseki might mean. However, Damian Flanagan's excellent introduction helps to introduce and draw attention to some of the philosophical content, symbolism and imagery, and his reading is quite convincing.
This is a carefully planned, controlled novel. As Flanagan convincingly points out, it can be understood as a satire on a specific kind of "will-less" person - rather than, for example, a treatise on the failure of religion to offer any escape or spiritual support.
It's a pity Peter Owen, the publisher, couldn't have gotten a new translation out of Flanagan as well as an introduction. It reads well in English, but the translation is neverthless about 30 years old, and Peter Owen does seem to be doing a major series of Soseki in English here.
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