I was also intrigued by the focus Ogawa brought on Kawabata. As literary child (presumably) his suicide may have made an impression on her. I was trying to think of how we say 後追い自殺 in English, and ‘copycat’ is precisely the word that my mind couldn’t conjure up! Thanks. It is however slightly sad that 後追い自殺 appears as a word in my Japanese dictionary (app). Something cultural, I suppose.
I’ve read 雪国 and 千羽鶴 in English many decades ago. Apart from the famous opening of 雪国 I can scarcely remember the story, but no worries, this seems like an ideal time to dig it out and re-read it. I enjoyed the post you linked from Steerit, perhaps I enjoyed the author’s with in the opening paragraph a bit too much. （笑）Thanks for including that, I didn’t know that website.
C10 wasn’t the easiest read for me, and I didn’t quite understand why the story stepped back to describe the interior again, but as the spotlight shifted to the library, books and Kawabata it made more sense. Feeding ポチ子 amongst the gloom, a bit of comic relief perhaps.
