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Ladataan... After the BanquetTekijä: Yukio Mishima
Japanese Literature (56) Ladataan...
Kirjaudu LibraryThingiin nähdäksesi, pidätkö tästä kirjasta vai et. Ei tämänhetkisiä Keskustelu-viestiketjuja tästä kirjasta. Psychologically complex, After the Banquet is the tragic story of Kazu, a middle-aged female entrepreneur in post-WWII Japan, who fives up her successful restaurant at the request of her husband shortly after falling in love with and marrying this man, a former politician. This novel had an unexpected feminist slant and would make a lovely introduction to Mishima's body of work. ( ) After the banquet (1960) falls about a third of the way through Mishima's impressively-long list of books - the fact that it appeared in English only a couple of years after its original Japanese publication is an indication of Mishima's reputation at the time. It's basically a political satire in form: a self-made businesswoman marries a gentlemanly, old-style politician and engages herself on his behalf in an election campaign full of dirty tricks on both sides. Mishima evidently made it a little too realistic, as the former foreign minister Hachiro Arita (who had just fought an election in rather similar circumstances) successfully sued him for invasion of privacy. It feels rather old-fashioned as a novel, because of the way Mishima keeps his distance from both the main characters, showing us what they are thinking and feeling indirectly and mostly through externals - clothes, physical settings, food, weather. We aren't allowed to sympathise too closely either with Kazu's frenetic need to drive events or with Noguchi's self-deceiving ethical stance, but we do get to see how they fail to communicate with each other almost from the beginning of the story. We do very clearly see Mishima's absolute contempt for the way Japan's post-war political machine operated in an environment free of any sort of ideological commitment, driven only by self-interest, cronyism and hard cash. He doesn't really need to spell out where they learnt that from, but there are a couple of significant passing mentions of US military bases. Probably the closest we come to a genuine emotion in the book is in Kazu's (doomed) desire to anchor her anomalous life within the norms of Japanese society, as symbolised by her aspiration to be buried in Noguchi's family tomb. Probably not a major work, but interesting, anyway. On reading this novel, one wonders what attracts the two characters - Noguchi, a traditional and very straight-laced man, and Kazu, a self-made and life-loving woman - to each other. Clearly Noguchi must feel some subconscious attraction to the sense of joie de vivre and exuberance demonstrated by this woman he agrees to marry. He is living the last stage of his life, and perhaps she offers a sense of renewal, even though he is repelled by many of her aspects on a conscious level and attempts to change her. Kazu, in her turn, is attracted by Noguchi's respectability since she is a woman of no background. He gives her a name linked to a family of a higher class than her own. Being a woman who is full of life, it is ironic that she feels a sense of achievement in picturing her name on the Noguchi headstone at the cemetery. Nevertheless, it is doubtful that their marriage can survive their natural differences, and the novel treats us to many episodes of their "culture clash," which is also symbolic of the era during which Japan was struggling to modernize after their defeat in World War II. Noguchi and pre-war Japanese ways of living march off to their slow death, while Kazu and modern ways of being thrive. This is a good novel and it’s a good revelatory novel. "After the Banquet" isn't just a snapshot of late-1950s Tokyo politics and it isn't just a fictionalized account of a real event—that Mishima lost a court case to. "After the Banquet" is a portrait of a two people with diametrically opposed personalities, values, and especially needs that overwhelmed whatever tenuous or superficial love they had. That Mishima has again opened the doors to the thoughts and motivations of such real characters makes this novel particularly praiseworthy. If the thesis that every Mishima novel is autobiographical or at the least has the footprints of his own personal values is true, with the exception of the potboilers, I find it interesting that the sympathetic protagonist is Kazu and not Nogouchi. Kazu, a woman who lives for the now, for the living, breathing moment. Kazu is the protagonist, whose emotions, modern sensibilities, and success clashed with Nogouchi’s needs to save face and to carry on with an antiquated, class-defined lifestyle (that shares many similarities with Mishima’s own), is the star and soul of this novel. Also, considering his dramatic works as well, e.g. "Madame de Sade," that thesis must be mistaken. What a book--talk about writing relationships that feel realer than life itself! Mishima is a master--Kazu at once represents the modern of the Japanese woman, and the success all women can attain: she's independently wealthy, influential, and can use her feminine beauty and tact as a weapon in conversation and politics. On the other hand, her husband Noguchi--a man she's attracted to for his stubbornness and aloofness--wants her to conform to his ideal of a housewife--something she cannot, ultimately, do. Watching married life slowly destroy Kazu's self respect is insidiously realistic, and so the drama unfolds beautifully.
"the biggest and most profound thing Mishima has done so far in an already distinguished career" "With 'After the Banquet' . . . Mishima cinches his champion's belt."
With vast psychological acuity and an unblinking insight into the nature of political and domestic warfare, Yukio Mishima creates a portrait of a marriage in which lofty principles clash fatally with appetite and ambition. For years Kazu has run her fashionable restaurant with a combination of charm and shrewdness. But when the middle-aged entrepreneur falls in love with one of her clients, an aristocratic retired politician, she renounces her business in order to become his wife.In time, however, the restless Kazu decides to resurrect her husband's political career. In doing so, she embarks on a series of compromises and evasions that will force her to choose between her marriage and the demands of her irrepressible vitality. With its subtle ambiguities and its complex, vibrant heroine, After the Banquet is a magnificent novel. Kirjastojen kuvailuja ei löytynyt. |
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Google Books — Ladataan... LajityypitMelvil Decimal System (DDC)895.635Literature Literature of other languages Asian (east and south east) languages Japanese Japanese fiction 1945–2000Kongressin kirjaston luokitusArvio (tähdet)Keskiarvo:
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