The Key (1961), as those who read it will unquestionably remember,
was the diary of a middled-aged man's fetishistic pursuit of
passion and it had a very definite (some found distasteful)
aberrant fascination. This again, while told in the first person,
manages to achieve the tone of the third - one of startling
detachment, and it is concerned with the complete sexual aridity of
an old man whose devil in the flesh still prods him with vicarious
fantasies. He is 77, and from his toothless mouth to his prostate,
with a severe neuralgic condition and high blood pressure in
between, his many physical disabilities are recorded here with as
great fidelity as is awarded his diminishing erotic returns. The
latter are achieved through his daughter-in-law, Satsuko, a former
chorus dancer, who indulges him deliberately; sometimes she lets
the old man kiss her feet in order to secure a 15 carat cat's eye
ring. This dangerously stimulates his blood pressure and finally
leads to his total destruction .... Tanizaki is one of Japan's
notable writers and his mad old man's self-induced pleasure-pain is
charted with a precise, perverse authority. (Kirkus Reviews)
Tanizaki's last novel - written during his final illness, echoes his o wn life. Moving and powerful, it takes the form of an old man's diary, where he records his struggle with his self-image, and the manifestat ions of age, and his growing desire for his beautiful, Westernised dau ghter-in-law. Between them, the two characters embody Japan past and p resent.
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