For several years, I avoided reading this book because my sister hadn't enjoyed it very much about ten years ago. I've never enjoyed a book she didn't--until this one. I've even convinced her to give it a re-read. Since she was younger than Cassandra when she read it, I don't think she understood it properly. Since I kept seeing books I love compared to it, I had to give it a chance, though. 
 I Capture the Castle is a beautifully written coming-of-age story, in the form of a journal kept by a young woman in 1934. It's very, very English, yet it also has a strong sense of mono no aware. There's even a description of mono no aware within the novel itself. 
 He stood staring into the wood for a minute, then said: "What is it about the English countryside -- why is the beauty so much more than visual? Why does it touch one so?" 
 He sounded faintly sad. Perhaps he finds beauty saddening -- I do myself sometimes. Once when I was quite little I asked father why this was and he explained that it was due to our knowledge of beauty's evanescence, which reminds us that we ourselves shall die. Then he said I was probably too young to understand him; but I understood perfectly. 
 I really love how well it captures a time and place within the pages. It reminds me a little of very different coming-of-age story I love, Sanshiro by Natsume Soseki. Sanshiro isn't at all English, yet has the same sense of the passage of time, while at the same time fully capturing each moment of happiness and melancholy with a strange joy. I think I like them for the same reason, one that's terribly difficult to put into words.