The magic barrel vs 暁の寺: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Japanese, Travel, Fiction
The magic barrel
This is Bernard Malamud's first book of short stories. The stories are set in New York and in Italy (where Malamud's alter ego, the struggling New York Jewish Painter Arthur Fidelman, roams amid the ruins of old Europe…
vs
暁の寺
A young man expends his spirit in the obsessive pursuit of a beautiful woman and a passionate search for mystical enlightenment. "Yukio Mishima's The Temple of Dawn is the third novel in his masterful tetralogy, The…
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- The magic barrel is the quickest read — about 3 hours vs 6 for 暁の寺.
- The magic barrel has the widest readership — 2897 ratings behind its score.
- The magic barrel runs the darker storyline; 暁の寺 stays the lighter read.
How to choose
Scores by source
| The magic barrel | 暁の寺 | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 3.9 (2897) | — |
| Hardcover | 2.5 (2) | — |
Reception
| The magic barrel | 暁の寺 | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 2897 | 1 |
| Editions | 66 | 9 |
| Citations | 21 | — |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 3528 | — |
| Reading it now | 133 | — |
| Written reviews | 238 | — |
| Wikipedia attention | 424 | — |
| Pages | 214 | 334 |