A book a day: Junichirō Tanizaki: four criminal cases

Valoración: Alright

Satori publishing house continues to publish Junichirō Tanizaki’s youth, as I already did with The demon and other stories. On this occasion, his anthology Four criminal cases Compile four short stories of mystery, intrigue and suspense of the Japanese author.

From these stories surprises Tanizaki’s narrative pulse, capable of extremely effectively shaking the reader from one side to another, but always allowing him to extract his own conclusions.

Also the close psychological portraits of its protagonists, generally male, capable of deep introspection and prone to a deliberate physical and moral degradation.

“The case of the Yanagi bath” (1918), a painter goes to a lawyer to help him settle if he has killed his lover or not. With such a premise, the story manages to capture the reader’s interest from the first pages. In addition, he has very suggestive ideas (although not always developed) and houses great passages (such as those who undress the attractive mind of the young K, or those, of a more dreamlike and atmospheric finish, which supposedly pass in a ghostly bath).

In “On the way” (1920), a private detective addresses an office worker in the middle of the street and openly admits that he is investigating him. It is a story in my opinion somewhat linear, but taken with a mastery. Likewise, it is undergoing the acuity and sagacity of the detective, and because of the way in which, through dialogue, it is cornering the wage earner.

In “El Ladrón” (1921), a student scholarship of an elite institute is suspected of being the perpetrator of a series of robberies that occurred in his residence. It reminds me of other stories from Tanizaki (such as “the criminal”, “a confession” and “hate”), in the sense that it is an intense and forceful psychological portrait that, although I would have liked to see me inserted in a greater argument, it works satisfactorily by itself and presents an internal logic the twist.

In “Devils in daylight” (1918), a writer is invited by a wealthy, idle and mentally upset friend to accompany him to witness the execution of a murder. With this story it happens to me the same as with the works of Edogawa Rampo: although it seems enjoyable and very entertaining, it forces to suspend disbelief in too Something naive day of perverse eroticism or the spins of Rocambolesque nut).

Summarizing: Four criminal cases It is a recommended anthology, especially for Tanizaki’s completeists and lovers of suspense literature that emphasizes the darkness of human nature. However, you have to read it taking into account that, despite belonging to an extremely talented author, he was still in his embryonic phase when he wrote the stories that compose it. And even the most successful of the set (in my opinion, “the thief”) presents some roughness.

Also from Junichirō Tanizaki A Ulad: Here