The Gate (New York Review Books Classics)

When one reads a Japanese novel one enters a different literary ethos than a Westerner is used to. Stillness and understatement are at its center. So it is with this beautiful novel. This is the story of Sosuke and Oyone, a young married couple who live in relative isolation in the midst of 1900 Tokyo. Why they live in isolation is never explicitly stated, but it is a moral 'crime' for which the reader must fill in the blanks. The seasons change, holidays come and go, Sosuke goes and comes from work, and these quiet events make up the lives of this simple loving couple until a crisis of sorts occurs. Savor the descriptions of nature and everyday life and reside in stillness as the inner life of Sosuke unfolds.

The Gate (Mon) is not one of the best known works by Natsume Soseki, Japan's most admired novelist. Reading this translation by William Sibley is discovering anew the greatness of the original work. Nothing remarkable happens in the story and yet, after reading a few pages of the book, you cannot put it down--or you may even read it twice in one sitting as I did. If you know Japanese, you may open the original book and sign over the translator's skill in reenacting Soseki's rhetorical style and conveying the interior of the modern man. Here is a translator who feels and writes like Soseki. Anyone with strong interest in literature in any language would enjoy this novel by this translation. The book should also be useful for the classroom--as a sensitive and expressive study of the pain of modernity. (Sumie Jones)

think Natsume Soseki's novel The Gate (1910) is one of his best novels. It is a curious novel since not much of notice happens in the story. The main character, Sosuke, is something of a cypher, he goes through life with quiet resignation much like his contemporary salaryman brethren of today, but little by little his back story is revealed. He basically gave up all his future possibilities to marry his wife Oyone, whom he stole away from his best friend at Kyoto University. This causes much consternation and separated him from his family and put him in a sort of social exile. He has wandered from Place to place before finally settling his home town of Tokyo. He had to within draw from university and go to work, he works six days weeks and has little energy for anything else on his Sundays off. He is also in charge, by default, of a much younger brother, Koroku, who is studying at university. He had let his uncle handle the family's inheritance, but when his uncle dies he learns that they have squandered it and his brother has to move in with Sosuke and Oyone until they can find a solution to the financial problems. Sosuke is ineffectual and has problems being proactive-he reminds me of contemporary Japanese who are the same and fall back on the "shoganai" mentality, which essentially means "it can't be helped," it seems like a national characteristic to me. I liked how Soskei drops us in the middle of Sosuke's life and then slowly reveals the trials and tribulations that cause him consternation.

Beautifully written, exquisite in that particularly Japanese manner, I'm embarrassed to say I can't finish it. It's SO still that it drags like molasses on a winter day. I'm just not up to it, and I love the Japanese aesthetic.

This is the story of mature love exiled in sleepwalkers' time. "they experienced a harmony and a mutual fulfillment rarely attained in marriage-and concomitantly, a sense of tedium as well." Their spirits are eroded by the daily mundane of social isolation, middle class poverty in Tokyo inflation, and their past which consequence has been passivity. The gray routine and pressures occupy the first half of the book. The second half reveals the backstory of a modern man's youthful past of restless exuberance and careless wealth. Betrayal and transgression, "had dyed their existence a somber hue and reduced their presence, they felt to mere wraiths that barely cast a shadow on the world" Returning to the storyline, a fever of guilt and fear of exposure, of loss of their meager government clerical income, of a health crisis, drive the husband to religious retreat at a Rinzai Zen monastery where he works on the koan of his face before his parents were born. Some calm is regained. The language in this translation flows freely. The footnotes in this kindle edition are excellent and necessary. Ex. "Hekiganroku" in the text, "Blue Cliff Record" in the footnote. "Shumon mujinto ron' by Torei Enji is footnoted "Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School". An alternate translation by Sanzen Nyumon: "A Treatise on the Inexhaustible Light of the Religious Gate" might have been more evocative of the title.

Wonderful novel, read twice before. Thought I’d read again in Kindle app. Do NOT buy this version. Every. Single. Word. Is. Underlined. Tried on two devices. Disgraceful.

este libro se dice que es el favorito de soseki. aun no lo leo pero llego en perfectas condiciones. tengo muchas ganas de leerlo.

A reader from a Western culture cannot approach this novel in the same way one would a novel published in the West. Japanese themselves see Soseki as one of their greatest authors; certainly the one best able to convey late 19th, early 20th century Japanese sensibilities. If you want to better understand how and why Japan is different from North America or Europe, even though superficially it might seem similar, then this is a must-read book. Please give it time, your patience with what may seem a slow-moving story, and you will be amply rewarded. It can become one of those stories you enjoy returning to many times, even when you "know the story".

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.

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.