The house of the sleeping beauties

In all honesty, this book stirred up a lot of negative emotions in me. I know it's not strange for humans to be sexual, to have many lovers in a lifetime, and (even if it's a morally gray area) to have extramarital affairs. But combined with the narrators extremely close examination of all these women, it honestly did not do well for my already low self esteem.

It's an extremely melancholic book, for sure. Kawabata is good at such emotions. An old man observing this young women, teens, even, and being reminded of past lovers and thinking about death. There is something very carnal about it. But I can't help but resent a part of him. How ironic how I'm getting offended over prostitutes who literally could just be lifeless dolls (all they do is sleep and look pretty, I'm sure I look hideous when I'm sleeping) for being objectified.

I know I'm missing the point of this book. The idea of a house where women are drugged to sleep a deep sleep while old men and come and sleep with them is just something that is so very Kawabata. These sleeping dead-like women bringing back memories of women from the past, who might as well be dead themselves.

Maybe I just fear death and the fading of beauty as time goes on.