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The Key Jun'Ichiro Tanizaki 9780099466871 Books

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The Key Jun'Ichiro Tanizaki 9780099466871 Books

A man and his wife write diaries, knowing but not admitting they know, that each is reading the other's. Each then reveals all his forbidden wishes and transgressions against and for the other, which fuel mutual excitement and sex! The result is a masterpiece into the vicissitudes of love and aggression and how they blend in marriage. The partners play this like a chess game--My move...YOUR move! They tease, provoke, and then make love, fired up by the latest volleys. Their marriage undergoes a fascinating transformation as the game unfolds. She holds more cards, but HE will not be thwarted! She gives him a run for his money, but he gets to possess his posed and submissive, almost hypnotized (he plies her with liquor and she obliges him adding her acting skills)"love object" (psychoanalytic term which fits well here!). The communication via the diaries--with words, and in bed--often via mute theatrics, is a masterpiece of marital choreography!
How this elaborate marital game plays out is culture bound to some extent by its setting in the Japan of almost a century ago, but for me, this does not affect the story's salience to marriage wherever it exists!
This is a MUST read because of both uniqueness of plot, and the pleasure of exposure to the eloquent yet economic language of the literary master Junichiro Tanizaki!


Tags : The Key [Jun'Ichiro Tanizaki] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. 'This year I intend to begin writing freely about a topic which, in the past, I have hesitated to mention even here. I have always avoided commenting on my sexual relations with Ikuko,Jun'Ichiro Tanizaki,The Key,Vintage Uk,0099466872,General & Literary Fiction,Fiction

The Key Jun'Ichiro Tanizaki 9780099466871 Books Reviews

Tanizaka weaves a wonderful story and takes you, ultimately to a place you might not have anticipated. This may have elements of dark comedy, but if so it is bleached boned dry and did not have me smiling.

Mine is the 1981 Howard Hibbet translation published by Perigee. This is a novel very much about sex and adult desires. Very little occurs on the page that could be called graphic or “hard core” but front to back the themes are adult. Almost front to back it is about sex.

The story is told in about 180 pages. The narrative is lifted from the two diaries of a very traditionally matched husband and wife. He is older by 11 years. They were paired up, sight unseen. She never thought of him as even close to good looking and because of her traditional values any hint that she has a sexual existence must be coaxed out of her. Much is made of the fact that prior to the beginning of the book their sex life could result in mutual satisfaction but he feels his efforts had to be vigorous. He is now older and less sure of his continued sexual vigor.

All of this he confides to his diary. He keeps it private but it is clearly designed to be read by her. Between her overly traditional views about female sexual reticence and the marriage’s overall lack of communication, only this kind of covert indirect communication is possible.

She of course reads his diary and replies in one of her own. This covert exchange of desires is the book. What becomes apparent is that this diary is of a man whose fixations represents an ever narrowing of his sexual desires. Hers is the beginning of a realization of what could have been and might become hers. We realize that, for example she has never been courted. There is more than sex in this book and it is that part that would be giving away too much.

Part of Tanizaki’s mastery of storytelling is that the sharing of this couples’ most intimate thoughts is the easy to share part of the novella. He is a master story teller, and his story however exotic its location in pre modern Japan, it is told such that it has universal appeal.
Tanizaki always fascinated me with his daring writing , particularly the period he was writing when it was a taboo to talk about the subject of women & their desire etc.
His other novels are also very interesting
particularly " Makioka Sisters"
The Key is written in the form of two parallel diaries, diaries of a middle-aged couple over a four month period - plus a couple of months entries to finish off the story. The man is a 55 year-old academic who loves his wife and feels sexually inadequate. The woman is a 44 year-old traditional Japanese housewife, sexually both repressed and voracious. Their college-aged daughter is cool to the young man her parents present as a potential husband. The young man appears to be more interested in Mother than in daughter.
Through the diaries one observes the internal workings of the marriage. The husband hides from himself everywhere except in his diary. His wife hides from herself even in the diary. Each expects the other to "snoop" so that they can communicate through their writing what they cannot speak openly. And they use their sexual relationship as the metaphor for their entire relationship.
The author has done an excellent job of uncovering the ambiguity often present in relationships and the complexity of knowing even one's own motivations.
A man and his wife write diaries, knowing but not admitting they know, that each is reading the other's. Each then reveals all his forbidden wishes and transgressions against and for the other, which fuel mutual excitement and sex! The result is a masterpiece into the vicissitudes of love and aggression and how they blend in marriage. The partners play this like a chess game--My move...YOUR move! They tease, provoke, and then make love, fired up by the latest volleys. Their marriage undergoes a fascinating transformation as the game unfolds. She holds more cards, but HE will not be thwarted! She gives him a run for his money, but he gets to possess his posed and submissive, almost hypnotized (he plies her with liquor and she obliges him adding her acting skills)"love object" (psychoanalytic term which fits well here!). The communication via the diaries--with words, and in bed--often via mute theatrics, is a masterpiece of marital choreography!
How this elaborate marital game plays out is culture bound to some extent by its setting in the Japan of almost a century ago, but for me, this does not affect the story's salience to marriage wherever it exists!
This is a MUST read because of both uniqueness of plot, and the pleasure of exposure to the eloquent yet economic language of the literary master Junichiro Tanizaki!