The Makioka Sisters, Junichiro Tanizaki, Alfred A Knopf Inc, 1957, 530 pp (translated from the Japanese by Edward G Seidensticker)
Summary from Goodreads: In Osaka in the years
immediately before World War II, four aristocratic women try to preserve
a way of life that is vanishing. As told by Junichiro Tanizaki, the
story of the Makioka sisters forms what is arguably the greatest
Japanese novel of the twentieth century, a poignant yet unsparing
portrait of a family–and an entire society–sliding into the abyss of
modernity.
Tsuruko, the eldest sister, clings obstinately to the prestige of her family name even as her husband prepares to move their household to Tokyo, where that name means nothing. Sachiko compromises valiantly to secure the future of her younger sisters. The unmarried Yukiko is a hostage to her family’s exacting standards, while the spirited Taeko rebels by flinging herself into scandalous romantic alliances. Filled with vignettes of upper-class Japanese life and capturing both the decorum and the heartache of its protagonist, The Makioka Sisters is a classic of international literature.
Tsuruko, the eldest sister, clings obstinately to the prestige of her family name even as her husband prepares to move their household to Tokyo, where that name means nothing. Sachiko compromises valiantly to secure the future of her younger sisters. The unmarried Yukiko is a hostage to her family’s exacting standards, while the spirited Taeko rebels by flinging herself into scandalous romantic alliances. Filled with vignettes of upper-class Japanese life and capturing both the decorum and the heartache of its protagonist, The Makioka Sisters is a classic of international literature.
My review:
I came across this book in the fourth edition of The New Lifetime Reading Plan: The Classic Guide to World Literature by Clifton Fadiman. I bought that book several years ago as an aid to my autodidactic quest to become well read, a quest that eventually morphed into My Big Fat Reading Project. Reading The Makioka Sisters now dovetailed nicely into my current quest to read modern translated literature.
There are four sisters whose parents passed away when only two of them had married, leaving those sisters to take care of getting husbands for the younger two. When the story opens it is the mid 1930s and for upper class families marriages had to be arranged using a go-between. All sorts of ritual surrounded this procedure including the "rule" that daughters had to be married by order of age.
The third sister is shy to the point of barely being able to speak in front of a man. She is a hard sell to prospective husbands and her family is picky. Throughout the book, which spans several years, the search for this one's husband drives the plot.
Japan is already involved in their war with China and WWII begins in Europe. The family is not as well off as they used to be and the youngest sister is a wild non-conformist who could care less for tradition. She always has a man she is ready to marry and her tarnished reputation adds to the difficulties in finding a husband for her older sister.
So the drama of the marriage plot along with encroaching Western ideas gives the novel its tension. It is also a study in the inner lives of the women and their relationships as sisters. During incidents of meetings with prospective husbands, disagreements between the two older sisters, a terrible flood, illnesses, and the youngest girl's exploits, the author paints a vivid picture of Japanese society in transition.
I found it easy to read and got involved with all the women even though it is such a long book. In the end I decided it is the Japanese version of Pride and Prejudice.
Nice review! This sounds like an engaging book, recalling one I loved that haunts me in a good way, "Memoirs of a Geisha". I find the Japanese culture very intriguing. It's always interesting to immerse into a different culture from one's own, to see the differences and commonalities.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I loved Memoirs of a Geisha. Do you have a blog?
DeleteIt's interesting that you thought it resembled Pride and Prejudice given how different Japanese culture was/is to our own. I recently read The Snow Kimono by Mark Henshaw based in 1950-1960s, Japan. It has some elements of Greek tragedy and some contemporary elements as well. I thought it was very accomplished. It is one of my best reads of this year.
ReplyDeleteYes but Pride and Prejudice was an earlier British custom. I'm sure it is more modern now in Japan. The book you mentioned sounds good. I will check it out.
DeleteI like your description of it as a Japanese version of P&P. Pre-WWII, Japanese society seemed so closed to the outside world; was it not? I had a nonfiction book about that but now can't recall the title. I'll have to ask my friend from Japan if this novel was mandatory reading in schools. And I too liked Memoirs of a Geisha (what a book!) and wonder why that author didn't write a follow-up. hmm.
ReplyDeleteHistory is so odd. Yes Japanese society was closed to the outside world pre WWII, though this book shows how the outside world had started to creep in. But what is odd is how we dropped two atomic bombs on them, then moved in and became some kind of commercial and cultural best friends with them, then had a hissy fit when Americans started buying their products more than our own, and on and on it goes.
DeleteFascinating! I admit I had not heard of this book, but it's going on my TBR list right this instant.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy!!
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