Quicksand
Junichiro Tanizaki
Language: English
Pages: 240
ISBN: 0679760229
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A young, well-born Osaka widow, Sonoko Kakiuchi, describes her husband's humiliation and the influence of a beautiful and totally young art student on their lives in a novel set in the 1920s.
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letter paper is a plain dark brown, the text written on a slant, by pen with white ink, sloping down to the lower-right-hand corner. The writing is less skillful than Sonoko’s and seems to have been rapidly scribbled, but the large, bold characters give an agreeable impression of uninhibited liveliness.) Ma cbére soeur Mile Jardin, Dearest elder sister, today, Mitsu bas been in a bad temper all day long! Plucking the flowers out of the alcove, scolding poor innocent Ume (that’s the name of the
I’d like to tell you more about the quarrel I described in that letter. Maybe I’m repeating myself, but my husband and I were basically incompatible; it seemed to be physiological too. We never enjoyed a happy marital life. According to him, I was too self-centered. It’s not that we’re incompatible, he said; you just won’t make an effort. Even though I’m trying my best, it’s impossible, with your attitude. There’s no such thing as a perfect marriage. That’s how it may look from outside, but do
called me “Sister.” “Don’t be too intimate,” I used to tell her. “It’s better for you to call me Sono, rather than Sister. If you get into the wrong habit, you’ll come out with it before other people.” Yet whenever I said that, she took offense. “I hate it when you’re so distant! Don’t you like to have me think of you as my big sister? . . . Please, let me call you Sister—I’ll be very careful if anyone else is around.” But that day it finally did come out. After Mitsuko left, there was an
home. You said I should see her to her house, so if you’re not leaving, I’ll leave myself. But Ume chimed in, agreeing with everything he proposed. “That’s a good idea! Let’s do that!” She seemed to be playing into his hands. “It’s a lot of trouble for you, but you wouldn’t mind coming with us as far as the Hankyu station?” I began to think Ume was in on the plot. When we left the taxi at the bridge and headed down the pitch-black path along the embankment, she said: “It’d be scary to walk here
life study. So I was sketching her one day, along with the other students, when the director came into the classroom and said to me: “Mrs. Kakiuchi, your picture doesn’t look anything like the model. Possibly you have a different model in mind?” Then he gave a sort of mocking laugh, and all the rest of the students saw what was going on and began to snicker too. I was startled and felt myself blush, though at the time I had no idea why. Thinking back on it now, I’m not sure I was blushing, but