SOME PREFER NETTLES

by Junichiro Tanizaki ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 9, 1955

The dilatory dilemma of Kaname and Misako serves to point up not only the disaffection of a marriage -- but of a culture, in which the new ways of the western world, in contemporary Japan, have intruded on the old traditions of the East. For Kaname and Misako have acquired a modern outlook and for some time have equivocated and deliberated over the divorce they should secure since Kaname has found that his passion has cooled, and, with his encouragement, Misako has taken a lover. Visits with Misako's father only confirm the discrepancies between the generations for the old man has taken a young girl as a concubine and groomed her to minister to his inclinations, with the traditional, submissive rituals, and it is he who attempts to return Kaname and Misako to an acceptance of each other and also of an established and unquestioning pattern. A satiric fable which, if diffident, is poised and precise.

Pub Date: May 9, 1955

ISBN: 0679752692

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1955

Categories: FICTION