Hardcover, 256 pages
Published April 15, 2019 by Knopf.
In this “exquisite personal blend of philosophy and engagement, inner quiet and worldly life" (Los Angeles Times), an acclaimed author returns to his longtime home in Japan after his father-in-law’s sudden death and picks up the steadying patterns of his everyday rites, reminding us to take nothing for granted.
In a country whose calendar is marked with occasions honoring the dead, Pico Iyer comes to reflect on changelessness in ways that anyone can relate to: parents age, children scatter, and Iyer and his wife turn to whatever can sustain them as everything falls away. As the maple leaves begin to turn and the heat begins to soften, Iyer shows us a Japan we have seldom seen before, where the transparent and the mysterious are held in a delicate balance.
I don't know if it's because I'm getting older, but Pico Iyer's thoughtful prose on the full spectrum of life, creativity, the seasons, Japan, Zen, and Table Tennis, resonates deeply with me.
I look forward to returning to this unusual mix of memoir and philosophy.
Pico Iyer's "Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells" is a nice meditation on the idea of death and dying as we grow older and how Japanese culture thinks of these transitions. Mediation is the best word to describe the book, as many other reviews have done. It meanders quietly, its ideas and thoughts interweaving together. I feel that very few authors could have pulled off this type of book. It is clear that the idea for the book came up spontaneously and I do feel at times that the various strands of the book fit together but not as well as they could. I can see that all the ideas are of a theme but it lacks deeper narrative coherence. But perhaps that was not the point of the book in the first place.
Since I read [b:The Lady and the Monk|344026|The Lady and the Monk|Pico Iyer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431017086l/344026.SX50.jpg|2954374], …
Pico Iyer's "Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells" is a nice meditation on the idea of death and dying as we grow older and how Japanese culture thinks of these transitions. Mediation is the best word to describe the book, as many other reviews have done. It meanders quietly, its ideas and thoughts interweaving together. I feel that very few authors could have pulled off this type of book. It is clear that the idea for the book came up spontaneously and I do feel at times that the various strands of the book fit together but not as well as they could. I can see that all the ideas are of a theme but it lacks deeper narrative coherence. But perhaps that was not the point of the book in the first place.
Since I read [b:The Lady and the Monk|344026|The Lady and the Monk|Pico Iyer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431017086l/344026.SX50.jpg|2954374], I have wondered about what happened next? I think most people who read that book wondered about his relationship with the Lady but also about how Iyer changed through his encounter with Kyoto. Glancing over his biography, once can see that he never really left Japan and he ended up together with the woman in "The Lady and the Monk." Autumn Light helps fill in the details of his life and I appreciate getting to meet him and his family again. One doesn't need to have read the first book in order to appreciate this one. However, it is interesting to see how the author has changed and how he has grown into his life in Japan. Recommended.
Note - I read this book a number of months ago and do not have a copy in front of me to refer to. I will update this review when I can review the text more closely.
