01 Dec / Longing and Other Stories By Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, translated by Anthony H. Chambers and Paul McCarthy [in Booklist]
Nominated seven times for the Nobel Prize in Literature before his 1965 death at 79, Jun’ichirō Tanizaki (In Black and White, 2018) remains one of Japan’s most important modern writers. These three stories date back a century, yet their universal theme, familial relationships, remains relevantly evergreen. Anthony H. Chambers and Paul McCarthy, reunited after they co-translated The Gourmet Club (2001), are seasoned academics whose thorough afterword provides historical, biographical, and literary enhancements for interested readers.
In the titular opening tale, “Longing” (1918), a six-year-old forced to grow up prematurely because of sudden changes in his family’s circumstances wanders in search of his mother. In “Sorrows of a Heretic” (1916–17), an indigent family’s only son lives selfishly – skipping classes, womanizing, drinking, disrespecting his parents and dying sister, and abusing the kindnesses of classmates and friends. Interestingly, Chambers and McCarthy have restored a last paragraph Tanizaki deleted in his final, 1955 revision.
The collection closes with “The Story of an Unhappy Mother” (1921), which captures the fatally devolving relationship between a widowed mother and her eldest son.
Tanizaki enthralls with sharp, human(e) observations.
Review: “Fiction,” Booklist, December 1, 2021
Readers: Adult
Published: 1918-1921 (Japan), 2022 (United States)