First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

Light and Darkness is the last great work of Natsume Sōseki, recognized by Japanese and Western authorities as Jaoan’s foremost modern novelist. Although it remains unfinished because of his death it presents a study in depth of a young married couple, Tsuda and his wife O-Nobu, and the early twentieth-century Japanese world in which they live. Sōseki probes deep into his principal characters exposing layer after layer of egoism, and revealing the process whereby man cuts himself off from his fellow men and becomes incapable of love.

Happy Friday everyone! Technically, it is already Sunday so, have a blessed Sunday everyone. For those who practice the Christian faith, today is Easter Sunday. Christ is risen. I hope that with the Holy Week coming to an end, everyone has reflected on what the previous week truly means. With the weekend nearly done, I hope everyone is well-rested for what I perceive would be a tedious workweek ahead. Personally, I just came home after climbing Mt. Kinabalu which, at 4,095 MASL, is the highest mountain in Malaysia. It is also one-third of the Asian trilogy. With my successful Mt. Kinabalu climb, I have now completed the Asian trilogy. Just like what I have achieved over the weekend, I hope everyone also was able to realize some of their dreams in the past week, or maybe even in the past couple of months. Or if the weekend simply meant resting, it is still fine. What is important is doing well, in body, mind, and spirit.

I also can’t help but notice how time has been flying fast. Just like that, we are already midway through the year’s fourth month. Time for sure takes its natural course sans any regard to anyone. With this, how has the year been so far? I hope that it is going great for everyone, or at least it is going the way you wanted it to. If your year is going otherwise, I hope you experience a reversal of fortune. I hope positive energies, blessings, and good news flow into your lives in the coming days and months. I hope that you are well on your way to achieving your goals this year. Speaking of goals, I have several, reading-wise. One of my goals this year is to expand my foray into translated literature, hence, why I kicked off my 2025 reading journey with the works of East Asian writers. It was, as always, a fascinating and memorable experience that introduced me to new worlds I hadn’t been to before.

After a full quarter of venturing into works of East Asian literature, I resolved to explore other worlds. I didn’t have to go too far as I decided to immerse myself in the works of Asian writers. I commenced this journey with Elif Shafak’s latest novel, There Are Rivers in the Sky which I followed up with a work by Shafak’s countryman, 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Orhan Pamuk. For now, I made a temporary return to East Asian literature – it is, after all, still within the ambit of Asian literature – with Natsume Sōseki’s Light and Darkness. This is my fourth novel by the Japanese writer. Admittedly, I am only aware of three Sōseki novels: Botchan, Kokoro, and I Am A Cat. Imagine my surprise when I encountered Light and Darkness. I just knew I wanted to read the book, hence, its inclusion to my ongoing reading journey.

Originally appearing in serialized form in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, it was first collectively published in 1916 in Japanese as 明暗 (Meian), Light and Darkness is the last major novel written by Sōseki although it is unfinished at the time of his death. Also Sōseki’s longest novel, it is set in Tokyo in the years immediately before the First World War. It charts the fortunes of newlyweds couple  Yoshio Tsuda, a thirty-year-old company worker, and Nobiko, who was ten-years her husband’s junior and is familiarly referred to as O-Nobu. The backbone of the story – it has quite a thin plot from the looks of it – is Tsuda’s stay at an obscure doctor’s clinic to undergo, and then recover from, minor surgery.

During his stay at the clinic, Tsuda receives visits from a motley crew of his most intimate friends and family members. Of course, he gets visits from his coquettish young wife, O-Nobu. He also received his unsparing younger sister, O-Hide. O-Hide does not view her sister-in-law favorably, blaming her extravagance for her brother’s financial difficulties. Tsuda’s modest earning from his job barely covers their living expenses. Another prominent character is Tsuda’s self-deprecating and unemployed friend, Kobayashi, a nuisance who has a proclivity for troublemaking and who O-Nobu also does not view favorably. Tsuda’s employer’s wife, Madam Yoshikawa, also drops by for a visit. Of all Tsuday’s visitors, she is the most unusual and her purpose the most obscure. There is something about her that I have yet to unravel.

To be fair, everyone seems to have secret yearnings and resentments that they obscure from the rest. Tsuda palpably is keeping some secrets from his wife. His wife, on the other hand, has her own suspicions. Each character also has his or her own interest, some bordering on the selfish. Yes, Light and Darkness, for its thin plot, makes up for its rich character study. The characters are individually complex and Sōseki is quite a master of creating nuanced characters whose motivations take time to be unspooled. Sōseki’s rich psychological profiling of his characters makes his novels quite compelling to read. This also holds true for Kokoro and Botchan. This is the reason I am looking forward to what Light and Darkness has in store.

Is the title somehow a reference to the dichotomies between the inherently good and the inherently vile? This is my initial impression of the book before I started reading it. I am reminded somehow of Jorge Amado’s Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands although, of course, the Brazilian’s novel is quite different from the Japanese writer’s novel. I can’t wait to see how the story unfolds and how the characters develop? Or will they truly develop or will they be dismantled? There are several dimensions I see for now. The ideas and messages might crystallize as the story moves forward. How about you fellow reader? What book or books have you read over the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy whatever you are reading right now. Happy weekend!