Snow Country : Part 2

After reading the second part of Snow Country, I felt as though I didn't even finish the book. The entire first part is a lulling back and forth of a slowly progressing relationship that really isn't going anywhere. It is as Kawabata would say "a useless effort." Then at the very end of part two, when the reader thinks that something is finally going to be resolved, Yoko dies and Komako goes insane. Although Shimamura seems to experience a minor revelation of sorts, the reader is offered nothing. We never find out the relationship between Yoko and Komako. We never understand exactly what their involvement with Yukio was. We aren't aware of any closure in Shimamura's and Komako's relationship. However, I don't think the reading itself was a complete waste of time.
Kawabata obviously intended for the reading itself to be a "useless effort." He didn't want to disclose everything to the reader. In a way, I think Kawabata was making a point that sometimes things with no definite end or goal can be worth it simply in the fact that they happened. Yes, the reading itself is a useless effort because after reading the entire story there is no resolve or conclusion at all. However, there is a point.
After reflecting on it a little more, I think the ending of the story was my favorite part. Personally I grew very tired of Komako's drunken stupidity and indecisiveness. I also became rather annoyed with Shimamura's willingness to encourage Komako to make an ass of herself when he only had a mild affection for her that we all knew he would never act upon whole-heartedly. Their dragging love affair was was both dull and childish. However, by ending it with an up-in-the-air suspense, Kawabata makes the reader stop and think, "maybe this is all just a useless effort". I think there's a certain beauty in that.
Although it had many surreal qualities to it, this may be one of the most realistic readings we have studied, because often time that is the way life works. We go to school, to go to college, to get a job, to support a family, and so on not for a happy ending or a great tragedy, but because we simply do. Life is a useless effort. I may be wrong, but I think that's what Kawabata was getting at. Plus, he ended up committing suicide, so this work could reflect some of his suicidal thoughts about reality. Just a thought!