Customer Reviews

Key (Vintage Blue)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This small novel in the form of two interweaving diaries is a mere 160 pages long. In fact, it is 320 pages long. You have to read it twice to enjoy it fully.

The two diaries are written by a 55-year old professor and his wife who is 11 years his junior. To state the facts bluntly: He is oversexed and under-equipped; she is over-equipped and loathes him. In short, they are incompatible. They have been married for more than 20 years. As long as he sticks to his books and she to her traditional upbringing and old-fashioned morality the marriage works. Then, on New Year's Day, the husband starts to write in his diary about the sexual relations with his wife, knowing that she will read it. She, in turn, begins to write a diary in the knowledge that he will read it. A game of intricate manipulation begins during which he gains some momentary fulfillment of his desires and she finally finds a surprising solution to her marriage problem. It is an empty, ironic triumph, though. But I don't want to give away the plot.

The title of the novel alludes to the key to the husband's diary. A key is an instrument to open something that is locked. The husband intended the key to open up the heart of his wife to his needs. This is not what happens. His diary sets in motion another process. The key opens up something unexpected in his wife, ironically and tragically.

The novel can be read on several levels: as a mystery novel, a classic tragedy, an essay on marriage, a study in deception and self-deception, an exercise in the use of manipulation, a deliberation on sexual politics and obsession (even though this is the most un-erotic book about sex I have ever read), a story of female liberation, or a philosophical musing about the delusions of human beings.

It is absolutely a five-star performance. Please note the fine craftsmanship of Tanizaki. How he manipulates the reader, and how he structures the diary entries to reflect the balance of power between husband and wife (with the husband's fading influence and health, his diary entries fade, too). Please note, too, the fine moral balance that Tanizaki strikes. You may despise and pity his characters at the same time. Tanizaki completely refrains from letting his own ethical inclinations show in his characters. It is the process set in motion by the husband's diary that gives each of the two main characters what they desire. Let yourself be surprised.

Kagi or The Key is a fascinating novel in which Tanizaki brilliantly creates a means of communication for a husband and wife whose sexual relations need a new level of passion. The English translation loses the effect that the Japanese novel possesses; the husband writes in the more modern characters of katakana, while the wife, Ikuko writes in the more traditional Hiragana. The fascinating part of the novel is how well it expresses sexual desires without having the characters directly relate their wants and needs to one another. This follows the more conservative traditions of the Japanese, and suggests that feelings and emotions are taboo and should be kept to oneself. But the overall sense of the novel implies a strong feeling of tension that is only alleviated by deception. The characters are forced to control their sexual instincts and lie to themselves by not opening up to their parter. Truth is also another skeptical idea that is toyed with and conventionalism is a factor as well. The reader is never aware if either Ikuko or her husband ever read the other's diary and this leaves an aura of mystery; a positive aspect the author creates in the story. Overall, an intensifying work of art in both English and Japanese.

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.

I could launch into a whole spiel about the nature of truth and all that junk philosophers have been making a living from for a millenium and then some, but I won't. The Key is a work that will leave you wondering what exactly truth "is" in the Clinton way of speaking.

After more than 20 years of marriage, a husband and wife are finally becoming sick of each other. The husband sees his wife as sexually repressed and feels that he has to write his frustrations and fantasies in his diary. He's kinda torn over whether he wants her to read it or not.

The wife on the other hand sees her decade older husband as disgusting and demanding. She doesn't desire him physically as such. She just uses him for the act of sex and even that leaves much to be desired.

Enter a friend of their daughter named Kimura and things start to come to a head when he just happens to resemble the wive's favorite movie star. She uses her desire for him and her husband's jealousy to try to enliven their marriage. The problem is, like drugs and capitalism, you become acclimated to a certain dosage and then you have to escalate more and more. Then things become outlandish chaos.

This book is another masterpiece by Tanazaki which is crammed into a little close to 200 pages. I'm in awe of the dude. He takes these situations that seem so cliched and makes them into something great. He is a true master. Here we have a meditation on marriage and sex. How do two people who find out they married someone incompatible with themselves and yet continue to exist in the falseness of it? Many couples find themselves in the same situation. Lots of times they end up destroying each other. If only these characters could be honest with each other and speak their minds. Even the fact that they could really only communicate their deepest thoughts through diaries shows their weakness. I recommend this book highly. If you like it, check out another of his novels entitled Quicksand.

This is something of a demented romance novel (which is not the description of a novel that I would have expected myself to enjoy). However, the plot is so deceptively complex, and turns back on itself so deftly, that it is impossible not to be caught up in the deceit of the characters themselves. The apparent simplicity of the characters motivations and actions lead the reader into the same state of confusion that the characters appear to be experiencing. The ambivalence and ambiguity (two things that smack of a lack of conviction on the author's part in most novels) work marvelously in getting the reader as lost as possible in this ostensibly banal domestic story. Bet it's pretty cool in Japanese.

I was delighted and intrigued to read this short story by a Japanese writer. The Italian movie "La chiave" (1983), based on the novel but taking place in Venice, did a great job in bringing to life the emotions displayed by the characters throughout the story. The novel is not about sex, nor about eroticism per se: I read it as a psychological skirmish between a husband and a wife; as a battle of opposite wills; and as an indirect validation of the Buddhist understanding of desire and the suffering that stems from it. The man is in love with his woman and experiences a powerful, uncontrollable physical attraction for her; in other words, he is not content to jut have sex with her, but wants to admire and enjoy the sight and feel of her body. The woman, on her part, is a dutiful wife raised with unbridgeable moral strictures and does not allow her husband to view her and touch her as he would like to, because she considers it immoral,not to mention that she is somewhat physically repulsed by her aging husband); however, her love making is vigorous (she is 11 years his junior) and usually culminates in orgasm. So, what do we have here? A situation where a man does NOT get what he wants, but the woman has her cake and eats it too: she can enjoy orgasms without delivering what her man needs. HOWEVER, as a result of the "psychological chess game" initiated by the husband, both characters begin to move towards fulfillment of their needs. The woman wants to experience passionate and vigorous love making, and she will, thanks to her husband manipulation of a third party, Mr. Kimura, who becomes by the book's end Ikuko's lover; the husband wants unbridled access to his wife's body and he will get that, thanks to his manipulation of his wife's propensity to get drunk with brandy.
And yet, despite this partial "success", both characters will fail to crown their ultimate sexual dreams, remaining in a state of frustration and disappointment.

I was delighted and intrigued to read this short story by a Japanese writer. The Italian movie "La chiave" (1983), based on the novel but taking place in Venice, did a great job in bringing to life the emotions displayed by the characters throughout the story. The novel is not about sex, nor about eroticism per se: I read it as a psychological skirmish between a husband and a wife; as a battle of opposite wills; and as an indirect validation of the Buddhist understanding of desire and the suffering that stems from it. The man is in love with his woman and experiences a powerful, uncontrollable physical attraction for her; in other words, he is not content to jut have sex with her, but wants to admire and enjoy the sight and feel of her body. The woman, on her part, is a dutiful wife raised with unbridgeable moral strictures and does not allow her husband to view her and touch her as he would like to, because she considers it immoral,not to mention that she is somewhat physically repulsed by her aging husband); however, her love making is vigorous (she is 11 years his junior) and usually culminates in orgasm. So, what do we have here? A situation where a man does NOT get what he wants, but the woman has her cake and eats it too: she can enjoy orgasms without delivering what her man needs. HOWEVER, as a result of the "psychological chess game" initiated by the husband, both characters begin to move towards fulfillment of their needs. The woman wants to experience passionate and vigorous love making, and she will, thanks to her husband manipulation of a third party, Mr. Kimura, who becomes by the book's end Ikuko's lover; the husband wants unbridled access to his wife's body and he will get that, thanks to his manipulation of his wife's propensity to get drunk with brandy.
And yet, despite this partial "success", both characters will fail to crown their ultimate sexual dreams, remaining in a state of frustration and disappointment.

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!

This is a superb story from Junichiro Tanizaki. Here he tells the story of a disintegrating marriage through separate diaries kept by a husband and wife. He (the husband) is a middle-aged professor seeking out new sexual highs with his wife. She is a reticent and repressed woman with desires of her own. They write about their adventures from the previous night in their diaries, but soon begin to suspect each other of reading the others' respective diary. This is an excellent work of literary art that will hold your attention. As readers, we gain insight into the behavioral patterns of these two people and really have the opportunity to see what motivates them to do the things they do. The entries of Ikuko (the wife) were particularly interesting. Highly recommended!

The Key (Kagi) is an outstanding example of Tanizaki's diary-form novel. It carefully balances literary value and shock value to create a vivid, believeable exploration of repressed sexual bankruptcy. The use of the minds of both the husband and wife is very effective, and overall the novel evokes, like Quicksand, an odd feeling of Jane Austen(psychology of mutual deception) and Hemingway(brevity) as sexual deviants. The more graphic passages are essential and transcend mere titillation. Unlike An Almost Transparent Blue, whose explicit paragraphs almost seem inserted at intervals to keep one reading, the more difficult parts are the core of the story and its desperate tone. It is a very tight story that can be read in a single afternoon, but will be thought about many afternoons to come. It is an excellent choice, as is any Tanizaki, for a first look into Japanese literature.