sauris 's review for:

اعترافات خارجة عن الحياء by جونيشيرو تانيزاكي, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki

4.0

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oh my god this was so good i couldn't look away, not even for a second. it left me giddy. structured as parallel diary entries by a husband and wife - the husband's erotic obsession and the wife's feigned innocence - there's an implicit understanding that they're reading each other's journals. with each entry comes an added layer of manipulation and subtlety as it gets increasingly twisted, with them pushing each other further. so much of it hinges on plausible deniability. it's perverse and funny and ambiguous. my only quibble is that the ending went on to explain the entire book when the fun was in not knowing and reading between the lines. i'm definitely reading this again!

4.5/5