A book a day: Junichiro Tanizaki: Movedizas Arenas

Original Language: Japanese

Títutulus original: MANJI (swastika)

Translation: Aiga Sakamoto and Miguel Martín Onrubia

Year of publication: 1928

Valoración: highly recommended

But what a drama!

This novel has all the elements (and future clichés) of what would later be recognized as Japanese novel: unsatisfied wives, authoritarian but faint -hearted husbands, seductive young people, unscrupulous gigolós, family dishonor, suicide for love, etc. However, it is clear why Tanizaki is considered a representative of the modern novel in Japan. There are features of the nineteenth -century romantic novel, which Tanizaki mixes very well with the style of the novel Meiji.

In this early novel by Tanizaki, we are presented with the life of a boring and unsatisfied wife, with a history of infidelities (overlooked by the husband, always giving up appearances), who falls in love with a young woman with fascinating, innocent and innocent beauty narcissistic. In this lesbian relationship, on the one hand, the husband of the protagonist and, on the other, the lover of the young woman, forming a square (or manji) amorous worthy of a Mexican soap opera will be interposed.

The story is narrated from the point of view of the protagonist, who tells her misadventures to a kind of psychologist or advisor. However, his narration is confused with the voice of the other characters, which allows us to know their versions indirectly, most of the time contradictory, forcing us to position ourselves in favor of one or the other. This is achieved thanks to how well defined the personalities of the protagonists are, without caricaturing them.

It is especially interesting how Tanizaki, through the voice of this unreliable narrator, plays with the perception of the reader and with the ambiguity of the facts. Throughout the novel, not only the passions and frustrations of each character are revealed, but also the way in which the Japanese society of the time conditioned the roles and behaviors of men and women.

It may not be Tanizaki’s best work, but it is certainly an interesting and entertaining story, narrated fluently and not without the occasional Cliffhanger (the novel was originally published by deliveries). Although for the year this work was published, Tanizaki was already a recognized author, it seems to me that it is where it shows that he arrived at his maturity as a writer.