Diary of a Mad Old Man

Junichiro Tanizaki

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QTY:

Japanese

Vintage
06 October 2000

Fiction & Literature; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

At once hilarious and sad, Tanizaki's last novel - written during his final illness - echoes his own life.

While recovering from a stroke, seventy-seven-year-old Utsugi turns to his diary to wryly record his struggle with his ageing body and his growing desire for his beautiful daughter-in-law Satsuko, a chic, Westernised dancer with a shady past. Shining with a self-effacing humour, Tanizaki's last novel is a tragicomedy about desire and the will to survive.

By: Junichiro Tanizaki
Imprint: Vintage
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 173g
ISBN: 9780099285199
ISBN 10: 0099285193
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 06 October 2000
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Reviews for Diary of a Mad Old Man

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)