欧宝娱乐

A sweeping, propulsive masterpiece, the story of four sisters with divergent paths in a Japan caught between two eras in the late 1930s. When I first read this, ten years ago, I was drawn to the setpieces, particularly the famous, dramatic flood scene. And those are indeed great, but the subtleties - the book's focus on the body decaying, on western mores seeping their way into a family that wants to hold on to traditional values, the steady humor - make this a masterpiece.

It is in some ways a chamber novel, a series of small dramas told in rooms, as the Makiokas try to marry off Yukiko, the 3rd of 4 sisters. But natural disasters, war overseas, and cruelties lurk. It is a bit of Jane Austen and a bit of Tolstoy in one, with Tanizaki's keen eye for detail (those flower descriptions) setting it apart. You find your loyalties shifting among the sisters, as you read. Each is frustrating, each is wonderful. How like life.