Longing and Other Stories

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki is one of the most eminent Japanese writers of the twentieth century, renowned for his investigations of family dynamics, eroticism, and cultural identity. Most acclaimed for his postwar novels such as The Makioka Sisters and The Key, Tanizaki made his literary debut in 1910. This book presents three powerful stories of family life from the first decade of Tanizaki's career that foreshadow the themes the great writer would go on to explore.

"Longing" recounts the fantastic journey of a precocious young boy through an eerie nighttime landscape. Replete with striking natural images and uncanny human encounters, it ends with a striking revelation. "Sorrows of a Heretic" follows a university student and aspiring novelist who lives in degrading poverty in a Tokyo tenement. Ambitious and tormented, the young man rebels against his family against a backdrop of sickness and death. "The Story of an Unhappy Mother" describes a vivacious but self-centered woman's drastic transformation after a freak accident involving her son and daughter-in-law. Written in different genres, the three stories are united by a focus on mothers and sons and a concern for Japan's traditional culture in the face of Westernization. The longtime Tanizaki translators Anthony H. Chambers and Paul McCarthy masterfully bring these important works to an Anglophone audience.

“Chambers and McCarthy capture well distinctly different voices in these early Tanizaki stories exploring three modes of storytelling. Lyrical dream-memory, naturalistic fictionalized self-revelation, and ironic commentary on conventional social morality presage the author's later writing. The Afterword draws on the translators' deep knowledge of Tanizaki's work to enhance our pleasure and understanding.”

Though Tanizaki was prolific, by now most of his major works have found their way into English. That there are still delights to be uncovered, however, is confirmed by the arrival of Longing and Other Stories . . . the stories are satisfying in themselves and additionally pleasing for their hints of an emergent mastery. -- Brad Leithauser Wall Street Journal
Tanizaki enthralls with sharp, human(e) observations. -- Terry Hong Booklist
A kind of master class in voice . . . The world of literature is much richer now that Longing and Other Stories is available for English readers. -- Marissa Moss New York Journal of Books
This is a beautiful and immaculate Japanese short story collection from one of Japan’s greatest writers. -- Willow Heath Books and Bao
A fine and nicely varied little sampler of Tanizaki's early writing. -- M.A. Orthofer Complete Review
These three early works by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki explore family bonds—the mother-son relationship in particular—using different angles and styles: dreamy and lyrical, painfully realistic, tragically fraught. In stories rendered with elegant precision by the veterans Anthony H. Chambers and Paul McCarthy, Tanizaki masterfully probes the complexities of the human heart. -- Juliet Winters Carpenter, translator of Minae Mizumura’s An I-Novel
Among the most original and insightful novelists of twentieth-century world literature, Tanizaki creates richly idiosyncratic characters embodying the paradoxes of modern life. As deftly translated by veteran Tanizaki specialists Chambers and McCarthy, his short fiction will fascinate and delight readers. -- Keiichiro Hirano, award-winning author of A Man
Chambers and McCarthy capture well distinctly different voices in these early Tanizaki stories exploring three modes of storytelling. Lyrical dream-memory, naturalistic fictionalized self-revelation, and ironic commentary on conventional social morality presage the author’s later writing. The afterword draws on the translators’ deep knowledge of Tanizaki’s work to enhance our understanding. -- Phyllis Lyons, translator of Tanizaki’s In Black and White: A Novel
Vivid yet hazy, nostalgic and soothing yet disturbing, Tanizaki’s tale of longing for the mother is made available in this beautiful translation, together with two other strikingly different “mother” narratives. This book expands and enriches the Tanizaki corpus in English. -- Tomoko Aoyama, author of Reading Food in Modern Japanese Literature
In all of these three very different stories we hear Tanizaki’s distinctive voice and enjoy the products of his overwrought imagination. This translation is a valuable addition to the canon. -- Lesley Downer Times Literary Supplement
There’s a tremendous sense of loss shared by all three of the stories collected in this volume, with regret lurking close behind. Whether focusing on a dreamer wandering through a mythic landscape or a man becoming acutely aware of his own flaws, Tanizaki creates characters whose psychologies resonate and whose flaws are engaging. -- Tobias Carroll Words Without Borders
A brilliantly efficient introduction to [Tanizaki’s] work. -- Anna Hollingsworth Shiny New Books
Longing and Other Stories provides not only three thematically-linked stories to the canon, the afterword also adds an excellent resource of accessible scholarship and close-reading. -- Alison Fincher Asian Review of Books
Such brilliant storytelling . . . Tanizaki’s luminous and lucid prose forces the reader into an existential dilemma faced by the author and his characters, one of children torn between the old world and the new. -- Ella Kelleher Asia Media International
A heady accomplishment . . . Longing and Other Stories blends artful translation, gorgeous prose, and round, imperfect human people that are truly terrifying. -- Caren Gussoff Sumption Locus Magazine
Tanizaki was a master of different styles and voices, a skill in evident display in these new translations by Anthony H. Chambers and Paul McCarthy . . . this short collection really runs the gamut of mother-son relationships, allowing these disparate stories to achieve something close to unity of theme. Authors often return to the same topic over the course of their careers but few have the breadth of talent to take such fresh approaches each time. -- Iain Maloney Japan Times
The translators … have rendered the English seamlessly. Moreover, by taking all three stories from early in the author’s career, they give us a valuable window on to his development. They also showcase his inventiveness in tackling entirely different modes of narrative. -- Mark Robinson Mekong Review
This is literature for the soul at its finest. Asia Media International

Jun’ichirō Tanizaki (1886–1965) was born in Tokyo and lived there until the 1923 earthquake, when he moved to western Japan. His many classic novels include Quicksand, Some Prefer Nettles, and Diary of a Mad Old Man. At the time of his death, he was on the shortlist for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Anthony H. Chambers is professor emeritus of Japanese at Arizona State University. He has translated many works by Tanizaki, including Naomi (1985), and he is also the translator of Ueda Akinari’s Tales of Moonlight and Rain (Columbia, 2006).

Paul McCarthy is professor emeritus of contemporary culture at Surugadai University. His many translations of Tanizaki include A Cat, A Man, and Two Women (2015), and he has also translated other Japanese writers including Atsushi Nakajima and Mieko Kanai.

Chambers and McCarthy’s recent cotranslations of Tanizaki’s short fiction include Red Roofs and Other Stories (2016) and The Gourmet Club (2017).

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