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Title: The Key by JUNICHIRO TANIZAKI ISBN: 0-679-73023-0 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 30 July, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: HE SAID SHE SAID
Comment: I could launch into a whole spiel about the nature of truth and all that junk philosophers have been making a living from for a millenium and then some, but I won't. The Key is a work that will leave you wondering what exactly truth "is" in the Clinton way of speaking.
After more than 20 years of marriage, a husband and wife are finally becoming sick of each other. The husband sees his wife as sexually repressed and feels that he has to write his frustrations and fantasies in his diary. He's kinda torn over whether he wants her to read it or not.
The wife on the other hand sees her decade older husband as disgusting and demanding. She doesn't desire him physically as such. She just uses him for the act of sex and even that leaves much to be desired.
Enter a friend of their daughter named Kimura and things start to come to a head when he just happens to resemble the wive's favorite movie star. She uses her desire for him and her husband's jealousy to try to enliven their marriage. The problem is, like drugs and capitalism, you become acclimated to a certain dosage and then you have to escalate more and more. Then things become outlandish chaos.
This book is another masterpiece by Tanazaki which is crammed into a little close to 200 pages. I'm in awe of the dude. He takes these situations that seem so cliched and makes them into something great. He is a true master. Here we have a meditation on marriage and sex. How do two people who find out they married someone incompatible with themselves and yet continue to exist in the falseness of it? Many couples find themselves in the same situation. Lots of times they end up destroying each other. If only these characters could be honest with each other and speak their minds. Even the fact that they could really only communicate their deepest thoughts through diaries shows their weakness. I recommend this book highly. If you like it, check out another of his novels entitled Quicksand.
Rating: 5
Summary: The lies behind the lies behind the life
Comment: The Key is written in the form of two parallel diaries, diaries of a middle-aged couple over a four month period - plus a couple of months entries to finish off the story. The man is a 55 year-old academic who loves his wife and feels sexually inadequate. The woman is a 44 year-old traditional Japanese housewife, sexually both repressed and voracious. Their college-aged daughter is cool to the young man her parents present as a potential husband. The young man appears to be more interested in Mother than in daughter.
Through the diaries one observes the internal workings of the marriage. The husband hides from himself everywhere except in his diary. His wife hides from herself even in the diary. Each expects the other to "snoop" so that they can communicate through their writing what they cannot speak openly. And they use their sexual relationship as the metaphor for their entire relationship.
The author has done an excellent job of uncovering the ambiguity often present in relationships and the complexity of knowing even one's own motivations.
Rating: 5
Summary: An excellent book!
Comment: This is a superb story from Junichiro Tanizaki. Here he tells the story of a disintegrating marriage through separate diaries kept by a husband and wife. He (the husband) is a middle-aged professor seeking out new sexual highs with his wife. She is a reticent and repressed woman with desires of her own. They write about their adventures from the previous night in their diaries, but soon begin to suspect each other of reading the others' respective diary. This is an excellent work of literary art that will hold your attention. As readers, we gain insight into the behavioral patterns of these two people and really have the opportunity to see what motivates them to do the things they do. The entries of Ikuko (the wife) were particularly interesting. Highly recommended!
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Title: Naomi : A Novel by Junichiro Tanizaki ISBN: 0375724745 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 10 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Diary of a Mad Old Man by JUNICHIRO TANIZAKI ISBN: 0679730249 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 30 July, 1991 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki ISBN: 0679761640 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 26 September, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Some Prefer Nettles by Junichiro Tanizaki, Edward G. Seidensticker ISBN: 0679752692 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 26 September, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Quicksand by JUNICHIRO TANIZAKI ISBN: 0679760229 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 24 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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