It was surprisingly difficult to find some books by famous novelists at several local bookstores and by chance I stumbled across a small used bookstore that had the mother lode in terms of many great works I've been wanting to read from Mishima, Chekhov, Hemingway and more...all for a low price! For now I restricted myself to just three (3) books and one of them is by Yukio Mishima 'The Temple of Dawn'. This is the 3rd book in his 4-part epic 'The Sea of Fertility' that was to be some of his last published works before his abrupt death. While I would have liked to start from the beginning, they only had this one available and it proved an excellent choice. For starters, it's a mere 330 pages (much shorter than a Tolstoy colossus) and surprisingly the first few chapters read more like a Traveler's Guide as the main character Mr. Honda travels from Thailand to India and back to Japan with very detailed descriptions of the life & culture of each of these
An introspection and ongoing dialogue with myself on how to live simple in this modern, materialistic society.