The Lake (novel)
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| The Lake | |
| Author | Yasunari Kawabata |
|---|---|
| Original title | みづうみ Mizuumi |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publication date | 1954 |
| Preceded by | The Sound of the Mountain |
| Followed by | The House of the Sleeping Beauties |
The Lake is a short 1954 novel by Japanese Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata. This book tells the story of a former schoolteacher named Gimpei Momoi. Beginning in Karuizawa, the novel alternates between the now middle-aged Momoi and recurring memories of a lake from his hometown, and his interactions with a number of women, beginning with a relative and the uncomfortable circumstances surrounding a death in his family. The novel then explores his connection to a woman who loses a purse full of several years' worth of money earned as a lover to an older man as well as a relationship with a student, Hisako, when Momoi is a teacher, a relationship that begins with a somewhat odd-request for a good cure for a foot condition Momoi suffers from and then examines the circumstances of Hisako's family, who are well-off in the immediate post-war era. Finally, the now middle-aged Momoi follows a young girl during a summer period leading up to a festival and crosses path with a woman closer to his age.
