The Waiting Years 1st Edition

by Fumiko Enchi (Author), John Bester (Translator)

23 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-4770028891

ISBN-10: 477002889X

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The beautiful, immature girl whom she took home to her husband was a maid only in name. Tomo's real mission had been to find him a mistress. Nor did her secret humiliation end there. The web that his insatiable lust spun about him soon trapped another young woman, and another ... and the relationships between the women thus caught were to form, over the years, a subtle, shifting pattern in which they all played a part. There was Suga, the innocent, introspective girl from a respectable but impoverished family; the outgoing, cheerful, almost boyish Yumi; the flirtatious, seductive Miya, who soon found her father-in-law more dependable as a man than his brutish son.... And at the center, rejected yet dominating them all, the near tragic figure of the wife Tomo, whose passionate heart was always, until that final day, held in check by an old-fashioned code.

In a series of colorful, unforgettable scenes, Enchi brilliantly handles the human interplay within the ill-fated Shirakawa family. Japan's leading woman novelist and a member of the prestigious Art Academy, she combines a graceful, evocative style that consciously echoes the Tale of Genji with keen insight and an impressive ability to develop her characters over a long period of time. Her work is rooted deep in the female psychology, and it is her women above all-so clearly differentiated yet all so utterly feminine-who live in the memory. With The Waiting Years, a new and important literary figure makes her debut in the Western world.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

FUMIKO ENCHI, the daughter of a famous scholar of the Japanese language, was born in Tokyo in 1905. Without completing her studies at the Girls' High School of the Japan Women's University, she left to study drama. Her first play, Banshun Soya, performed at the Tsukiji Little Theater, was a success. At twenty-five she married a journalist, but after the unhappy war period, when all her property was destroyed, she determined to concentrate entirely on writing in order to escape the oppression of domestic life. A short story published in 1952, Himojii Tsukihi, was acclaimed by the critics and won the coveted Women Writers Prize. With illness and the psychological stresses of middle age, her writing took on an acute realism which set it apart from the subdued tones of traditional Japanese writing. On the publication in 1957 of The Waiting Years-a novel she took eight years to write-she won Japan's highest literary award, the Noma Prize, and is now a member of the Art Academy.

Product details

Paperback: 204 pages
Publisher: Kodansha USA; 1 edition (September 13, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 477002889X
ISBN-13: 978-4770028891
Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.4 x 5.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
Average Customer Review: 23 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,110,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #16811 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Literature
- #28754 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary
- #57254 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

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NetadminTop Contributor: Fountain Pens

Wonderful literature.

July 12, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is packed with concealed, repressed emotion, outstanding literature reading. Recommended reading.
Keep in mind, this story transcends cultures. Though based in Japan, her theme is applicable to most any culture.

One person found this helpful

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January 12, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

It's wonderful the way the Japanese write with so much poignancy and art and yet come off so very real. This is a story of a woman who's husband has put her aside for a younger woman and how they all reside together in his home with a daughter about the age of the concubine. It portrays an interesting look into Japanese family life though all is not as it seems for the lonely wife. I highly recommend this small novel; the writing is beautiful, the story subtle and moving.

One person found this helpful

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Lives are lived

December 3, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book will not appeal to everyone. I assume you will either love it or hate it. It is "very Japanese," I.e., lots happens but seems to be going nowhere (like life), no antagonist/major conflict with a "bad guy" (like life), focus on the characters' internal lives.

One person found this helpful

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Kathlene McClellan

An Exelllent Read

January 30, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I enjoy reading domestic stories from different cultures. This was beautifully, simply and directly written. Rich in the colorful environment and culture so different from my own . It took me away from my everyday life and isn't that what a book is for.

2 people found this helpful

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Georgeann W Redman

September 2, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

very interesting historical novel about women and their resilience

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January 16, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I ordered this and read it for a Japanese history and culture class last year. This is a powerful novel, following the life of one Japanese housewife as she deals with the changing times. I definitely enjoyed reading this book.

Comment

Transporting writing

March 2, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is a revealing and beautifully written novel about the lives of women in pre-World War I Japan.

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January 1, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

An absolute gem. This should be on college and high school reading lists.

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