This novella and two short stories are linked by their comic realism. All three are variations on a theme - dominance and submission in private relationships. The "man" in the title piece is a spoiled, self-indulgent caught in a war between his ex-wife, her wilful successor and a cat.

A Cat, a Man, and Two Women

Tanizaki,Junichiro

Flamingo

Diary of a Mad Old Man (Vintage Classics) [Paperback] [Sep 07, 2000] Jun'ichiro Tanizaki

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Vintage Classics

In Praise of Shadows

Essays & Correspondence

RANDOM HOUSE UK

Excellent condition book and cover, book has aged/tanning pages and a few age spots on the first few pages, otherwise, pages are clean. Binding is tight, spine is without creases. We carefully wrap and ship your book within 24 hours of order. (j-32)

Some Prefer Nettles (Picador Books)

Tuttle

From a Japanese master of romantic and sexual obsession come two novels that treat traditional themes with sly wit and startling psychological sophistication. In The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi, Junichir Tanizaki reimagines the exploits of a legendary samurai as a sadomasochistic dance between the hero and the wife of his enemy. Arrowroot, though set in the twentieth century, views an adult orphan’s search for his mother’s past through the translucent shoji screen of ancient literature and myth. Both works are replete with shocking juxtapositions. Severed heads become objects of erotic fixation. Foxes take on human shape. An aristocratic lady loves and pities the man she is conspiring to destroy. This supple translation reveals the full scope of Tanizaki’s gift: his confident storytelling, luminous detail, and astonishingly vital female characters.

The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi and Arrowroot: Two Novels

Chambers, Anthony H.

United States

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Junichiro Tanizaki’s Naomi is both a hilarious story of one man’s obsession and a brilliant reckoning of a nation’s cultural confusion. When twenty-eight-year-old Joji first lays eyes upon the teenage waitress Naomi, he is instantly smitten by her exotic, almost Western appearance. Determined to transform her into the perfect wife and to whisk her away from the seamy underbelly of post-World War I Tokyo, Joji adopts and ultimately marries Naomi, paying for English and music lessons that promise to mold her into his ideal companion. But as she grows older, Joji discovers that Naomi is far from the naïve girl of his fantasies. And, in Tanizaki’s masterpiece of lurid obsession, passion quickly descends into comically helpless masochism.

Naomi

Dramas & Plays

Vintage

Chronicles the obsessive love of Joji, an engineer in his thirties, for a fifteen-year-old bar hostess who reminds him of Mary Pickford

KNOPF

Four sisters of a respected Japanese family find different ways to cope with the harsh realities of life in postwar Japan

Makioka Sisters

History & Criticism

Perigee Trade

Kaname's father-in-law plans to save Kaname's marriage by involving the couple in the classic traditions of Japan, especially the puppet theater

Some Prefer Nettles

Diary of a Mad Old Man is the journal of Utsugi, a seventy-seven-year-old man of refined tastes who is recovering from a stroke. He discovers that, while his body is decaying, his libido still rages on -- unwittingly sparked by the gentle, kindly attentions of his daughter-in-law Satsuko, a chic, flashy dancer with a shady past. Pitiful and ridiculous as he is, Utsugi is without a trace of self-pity, and his diary shines with self-effacing good humor. At once hilarious and of a sadness, Diary of a Mad Old Man is a brilliant depiction of the relationship between eros and the will to live -- a novel of the tragicomedy of human existence. Translated from the Japanese by Howard Hibbett

Diary of a Mad Old Man

Literary

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tanizaki,Junichiro. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Tanizaki,Junichiro

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tanizaki,Junichiro. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Cat, a Man, and Two Women

Diary of a Mad Old Man (Vintage Classics) [Paperback] [Sep 07, 2000] Jun'ichiro Tanizaki

In Praise of Shadows

Some Prefer Nettles (Picador Books)

The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi and Arrowroot: Two Novels

Naomi

Naomi

Makioka Sisters

Some Prefer Nettles

Diary of a Mad Old Man