This is one of several prize wnning books I've been reading lately and the one I've stuck with after bailing on the previous two. I'm not sure why I'm staying with this one. It offers limpid writing of that particular Japanese style designed to assuage life's tensions, but at times I'm tempted to say it's really for 12 year olds. Overly sensitive ones. Who are very lonely. As a reward after they have dutifully finished three hours of homework.
What has been curious is the way the oh so depthless depiction of scenes occasionally brings in a particularly overt nod to Zen spiritual teaching. These moments would, I imagine, be mostly super conspicuous to a Japanese or Chinese reader, and firmly impress the philosophy of the book beyond any doubt. The Western reader loses nothing by not knowing when the Zen paintbrush is being applied, and perhaps gains as it seems rather heavy-handed. The first daub was referencing a famous zen koan, and giving it a slight, and amusing twist, but later it's more full-on, and emerges from sub-text to pedagogic as the soto zen tradition is compared most favourably in contrast to that of the rinzai. I'm beginning to wonder if the book's title is also subtly dallying with these alternative philosophies when seemingly simply referring to materials pertinent to the world of a trainee piano tuner in a small town.
