“You are now vacillating,” she affirmed, looking directly at him. With his idle nature and fleeting fantasies of making a new start overseas, he’s a typical Sōseki dreamer whose character is neatly summed up by a fortune-teller he visits: To the Spring Equinox and Beyond (translated by Kingo Ochiai and Sanford Goldstein) begins by introducing us to Keitaro, a recent university graduate looking around (albeit not too diligently) for a job.
However, today’s book, while another excellent novel, is unlikely to feature among these hypothetical responses – which is a shame, as it’s probably up there among my favourites. If you asked a reader interested in Japanese literature, they might mention Kokoro, I am a Cat, Botchan or possibly Sanshirō, and these are all great choices. If you asked the average reader what their favourite Natsume Sōseki book was, they’d… well, they’d probably just look at you blankly and make a polite escape as soon as possible.
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