Grass on the Wayside - Soseki Natsume

Natsume Sōseki's only autobiographical novel. Its protagonist Kenzō, back from studying in England, is caught in money disputes, demands from relatives and a cold marriage, deeply exposing the loneliness and spiritual predicament of the modern intellectual. Cool and realistic, it shows the helplessness and disillusionment of life, and is Sōseki's late masterpiece, stripped of ideals and dissecting the self.