The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto @ richardeward.com

The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto
by Pico Iyer
from Vintage

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• Beautiful but aggravating
  There is no doubt that Pico Iyer is a masterful writer: his descriptions of Kyoto and Japan are breathtakingly gorgeous. He does have a tendency to ramble at times, but the passages that are good are worth slogging through the ones that drag.
  However, there are parts of this book that do not seem plausible. Never once does he get frustrated by the language barrier or long for a cheeseburger. (I lived in Japan for three years and can attest its only natural to feel homesick or lonely.) He spends his... more info

• Neither enlightening nor entertaining
  This book is neither hot or cold, just insipid ... it's not really about Japan and not really about Zen Buddhism either. A more apt title would be "Quiet Desperation in Japan" - Iyer flirts with Zen and does not achieve any insight, and his imagined romance with Sachiko lacks fire and ultimately unconvincing.
  I'd recommend the following books that are much superior:
  - For Japanese Zen Buddhism, read Peter Matthiessen's extraordinary "Snow Leopard" and "Nine-headed Dragon River".
  - For a... more info

• Decent, but a little repatative
  First let me just say i liked the book and could almost give it 4 stars. The reasons i decided to only give it 3 was the way it was written and the length.
  I feel Pico could have covered what he did in about 30-60 pages less if not more. The story mainly focuses on the way Japanese society is with it's reservations and freeness. Pico quotes old poems and he obviously wants to believe japan embodies these poems, but he finds that japan is more complex than he thought. The main relationship(a somewhat... more info

• Vivid ...
  In my opinion, Pico Iyer seems to be a very moody writer. He usually writes well, but then there are moments when he comes into his own and writes with an amazing surreal quality. The transition from good to surreal is very smooth: It is like being transported to another (sometimes surreal, but very vivid) realm and you'll lose count of the time. I was particularly impressed by his prose wherein he describes his late night walks amidst all the floating lanterns.
  Pico has an uncanny knack of doing... more info

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