THOUSAND CRANES

The winner of the 1968 Nobel Prize for Literature uses fine brushstrokes to create a fragile metaphor for the way certain objects carry memories across generations. The Japanese tea ceremony, with all its accompanying movements and gestures, serves to connect Kikuji, a young man in post-WWII Japan, to his father and the past. Narrator Brian Nishii uses calm, understated tones to fully illuminate Kikuji’s emotional state as he tries to make sense of his unruly desires, his feelings of loss, and his deep loneliness. Nishii adds depth to Kawabata’s spare, disciplined language, never resorting to theatricality yet providing significant moments of reflection and contemplation as Kikuji works to achieve awareness. In both substance and delivery, THOUSAND CRANES (1951) is as subtle and minimal as a Japanese painting. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2011]