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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
Couldn't finish it, Tanizakis writing style is alright I suppose easy to read but nothing to continuously compliment. Too hard to stomach the fact that a poor 15 year old girl just wanted to study and he took advantage of that. It was probably not his intention to make me cry but I did, I don't think I'll be finishing this any time soon.
Very, very good. The ending surprised me at first, but it's fitting. It reminds me a little of Tender Is the Night in the sense that the marriage is a power struggle between a younger, inferior wife and a seemingly upstanding husband. The writing is awesome and it was all-around a very good book.
Japonca Lolita olarak tasvir edilen kitabın orjinal adı "Bir Budalanın Aşkı". Baş karakter Joji'nin bilincini takip ettikçe yazarın verdiği isme hak veriyorsunuz. On beş yaşında bir kafede çalışırken tanıdığı Naomi'yi kendi zevklerine göre yetiştirip evlenmek için evine alıyor Joji, ve kitap bundan sonraki yıllarda Joji'nin nasıl Naomi'nin kölesi haline geldiğini işliyor. Güzelliğiyle herkesi etkisi altına alan genç bir kız var baş rolünde kitabın, varoşlarda yaşayan bir şehirli, kimsenin gözüne takılmamış daha önce; bir yandan da Joji var, kimsenin dikkatini çekmeyecek kadar sıradan bir taşralı, her zaman kendisini eksik görebileceği bir konu bulabiliyor ve aşağılık kompleksi kaldırabileceğinden de büyük. Naomi'ye olan aşkı Batılı aktrislere benzediğini fark etmesiyle başlıyor Joji'nin, kitabın içeriğinin çoğunluğunu oluşturan bu Batılı özentisi çok absürt düşünceler doğuruyor. Kendisini asla üst tabaka olmaya layık görmediği için Batılıların yanına yaklaştırmayan Joji bir yanda, Batılı gözükmenin en büyük güzellik olduğunu düşünerek kendinden geçen Naomi bir yanda...
Genç kızın ilgisini birazcık olsun üstünde tutabilmek için bu adamın yaptığı şeyler okuyucuyu şaşırtmıyor değil, Naomi'nin temelde kendisine ait olmasını, kendine muhtaç olmasını isteyen bir ruh hastasıyla karşı karşıyayız çünkü.
Kitap akıcı ve şaşırtıcıydı, bu döneme dair yazılmış Japon eserlerindeki Batılı karşılaştırmaları beni her ne kadar şaşırtsa da okuması çok keyifli bir kitaptı.
Genç kızın ilgisini birazcık olsun üstünde tutabilmek için bu adamın yaptığı şeyler okuyucuyu şaşırtmıyor değil, Naomi'nin temelde kendisine ait olmasını, kendine muhtaç olmasını isteyen bir ruh hastasıyla karşı karşıyayız çünkü.
Kitap akıcı ve şaşırtıcıydı, bu döneme dair yazılmış Japon eserlerindeki Batılı karşılaştırmaları beni her ne kadar şaşırtsa da okuması çok keyifli bir kitaptı.
Perhaps it's the translation, but I didn't find Naomi all that comical.
Told through the eyes of the husband with a frankly worrying lolita complex, we only see Naomi as he see her: an idol, and then a whore. When she demonstrates her intelligence, the husband is quick to write it off as her lying to save face, rather than manipulating him. Perhaps the reader is supposed to pick up on this, and feel nothing but derision and callous joy at his failures to understand that he married a human being instead of a perfect wife.
To me, Naomi's manipulations, adulterous affairs, and teasing is her getting back power in a relationship that tried to take it from her from the beginning (she was "adopted" from a poor family at 15, so the husband could raise her to be what he wanted in a wife). This man thinks he can save her, and she toys with those sentiments to get what she wants which is fantastic... except I keep getting this niggling feeling that we are supposed to be feeling sorry for the husband.
Whether or not I like this story, it seems, is completely dependent on whether or not the moral is not to try and mold women into what you want them to be. If that is the moral, fantastic book. If it is not, cultural touchstone and mirror of its times though it may be, I would not suggest this book.
Told through the eyes of the husband with a frankly worrying lolita complex, we only see Naomi as he see her: an idol, and then a whore. When she demonstrates her intelligence, the husband is quick to write it off as her lying to save face, rather than manipulating him. Perhaps the reader is supposed to pick up on this, and feel nothing but derision and callous joy at his failures to understand that he married a human being instead of a perfect wife.
To me, Naomi's manipulations, adulterous affairs, and teasing is her getting back power in a relationship that tried to take it from her from the beginning (she was "adopted" from a poor family at 15, so the husband could raise her to be what he wanted in a wife). This man thinks he can save her, and she toys with those sentiments to get what she wants which is fantastic... except I keep getting this niggling feeling that we are supposed to be feeling sorry for the husband.
Whether or not I like this story, it seems, is completely dependent on whether or not the moral is not to try and mold women into what you want them to be. If that is the moral, fantastic book. If it is not, cultural touchstone and mirror of its times though it may be, I would not suggest this book.
Started to give me Lolita vibes. Very male-gazey in its depiction of the main female character (and its obvious sympathy with the main male character). Really slow paced and took a lot of energy to keep diving into, eventually I didn't feel I was getting anything out of it anymore. Sorry not sorry.
challenging
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of those short and sharp novels about weird, obsessive love. And one where you notice the strangeness at the edges of sentences and chapters.
I liked this novel but I think my appreciation may have been improved by a better understanding of Japanese culture between the wars. That's one of my favorite periods to read in Brit Lit, but my knowledge of this period in Japan is minimal.
Like other readers, the novel put me in mind of Lolita and I can see the Madame Bovary comparisons. It also reminded me of the narrator's obsession with Albertine in Proust's In Search of Lost Time. Joji's paranoiac jealousy (though justified) is very similar to that in both The Prisoner and The Fugitive. Unlike Proust, though, Tanizaki doesn't stretch the obsession over hundreds of pages. Not that those hundreds of pages in Proust aren't wonderful, it does get just a tad tedious.
Like other readers, the novel put me in mind of Lolita and I can see the Madame Bovary comparisons. It also reminded me of the narrator's obsession with Albertine in Proust's In Search of Lost Time. Joji's paranoiac jealousy (though justified) is very similar to that in both The Prisoner and The Fugitive. Unlike Proust, though, Tanizaki doesn't stretch the obsession over hundreds of pages. Not that those hundreds of pages in Proust aren't wonderful, it does get just a tad tedious.