Rating: 
Summary: Antony and Cleopatra Revisited
Review: A dubiously crafted work of self-devourment. The course of the novel follows the downfall of the narrator's self-respect at the hands of a seductive lady. The seemingly tragic history that unfolds is marked by the narrator's repeated attempts at extricating himself from the spell that his lust and overpowering "body-parts" fetish for this woman, exotically named "Naomi", has produced within him. Ultimately, he succumbs to his innermost desires and is enslaved by it. He, however, feels no remorse over this, and does not plead for sympathy from his audience.What this work entails is a woman of awe-inspiring influence who knows it all too well, and a worm of a man who has locked himself into the role of the 'forever enchanted,' mysteriously under a lustspell that appears to be his wit's end. Here, we witness the classic Roman tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra realized in a Japanese retelling: a once self-respectful (and therefore respectable) man destroyed by the charms and wiles of a woman--oh, how beguiling appearances can be!
Rating:
Summary: Four and a half, actually.
Review: A fine novel. The premise may seem simple, but Tanizaki has an excellent ear for dialogue and an engaging style that'll pull you in and make you read the whole book before you know it. Said style is often ironic, witty and amusing, but the author always knows better than to engage in small-minded mockery of any of his characters. The point isn't to get you to hate Naomi, it's to get you to understand and sympathize with the hapless Joji, whose travails are depicted in such droll and realistic detail that one gets the impression that there's something of Tanizaki's own life in here. The photograph of him on the back cover of my edition, at any rate, could have been the spitting image of Joji. Anyway. Even if this isn't my favourite book or even my favourite Japanese book, it's still a great, bittersweet read. You should probably purchase it.
Rating:
Summary: A different opinion
Review: Great style ! This is my first book by Tanizaki but not the last. After I read this one, I read "The Key" which is even better. Tanizaki's women seem scheming and relentlessly looking for sexual fulfilment, literally leading their husbands to their deaths at the end (at least in the case of the Key heroine). Very enjoyable !
Rating: 
Summary: brilliantly written but infuriating
Review: it's hard to imagine this book being written over 75 years ago. tanizaki writes with great clarity and precision, and like many japanese novels the use of language is wonderful. but the subject! naomi is the most vile, cruel, manipulative, evil creature he could have imagined. joji, her hapless benafactor and husband, starts of being somewhat sympathetic, but in the end it's tempting to strangle him just to put him out of his misery. this is all done with great style. at turns creepily erotic, hilarious and pathetic, it's difficult to come away from this novel feeling anything less than defiled. a scathing indictment of the 1920's japanese obsession with things western, i've trouble understanding why government censors briefly terminated newspaper serialization in 1924; it shows nothing even remotely appealing about western culture or lifestyle. a good tonic for this was peter mccarthy's "little bunny on the move".
Rating:
Summary: literary masterpice but not suited for feminist readers
Review: The story tells about one average man, attracted by all that is perceived as "western and modern" at the time who raise Naomi (a girl from modest background) to make her his perfect bride and later marry her. He attemps to make her his work (he uses similar words) but things do not turn out as he planned when he realizes she grew up to be a perverse, manipulative, evil woman. The main character however, ends up completely submitted to his desire for her and maintin his destructive relationship with her even though he despises his wife. I read a few of Tanizaki's book and his work appear to have two main themes which are: the criticism of Japan's obsession for what is western (the book was written in the twenties I think) and the destructive erotic passion. Both these themes are prominent in Naomi which is one of his best work (along with "The Key" and "Diary of a mad old man") as far as I can tell.
Rating:
Summary: Love?
Review: This is my second time reading the novel, but this time it was for material for a research paper and used it for literary references to the westernization of Japan. To that effect it depicts the contemporary and westernized Moga, Naomi, and the more traditional Joji, who is in the clutchs of Naomi and is completly subservient to her. Some may take that for symbolism and either way it works out to the same point on westernization. This book is at times funny for Joji's comments on westerners, but other then that this is not a humorous book, so pay no attention to the reviews on the cover saying its "gleeful". If you want a very intresting depiction of Japan post-WW I or you want to witness a strange and capitvating relationship between Naomi and Joji and then be able to wonder about the physcology of it all, you'll have a kind of morbid love for this novel but hate the characters. ON the writing style, Tanizaki depicts and protrays Joji's feelings and situations so real the already off the wall situation will seem quite realistic and even plausiable.
Rating:
Summary: Love?
Review: This is my second time reading the novel, but this time it was for material for a research paper and used it for literary references to the westernization of Japan. To that effect it depicts the contemporary and westernized Moga, Naomi, and the more traditional Joji, who is in the clutchs of Naomi and is completly subservient to her. Some may take that for symbolism and either way it works out to the same point on westernization. This book is at times funny for Joji's comments on westerners, but other then that this is not a humorous book, so pay no attention to the reviews on the cover saying its "gleeful". If you want a very intresting depiction of Japan post-WW I or you want to witness a strange and capitvating relationship between Naomi and Joji and then be able to wonder about the physcology of it all, you'll have a kind of morbid love for this novel but hate the characters. ON the writing style, Tanizaki depicts and protrays Joji's feelings and situations so real the already off the wall situation will seem quite realistic and even plausiable.
Rating: 
Summary: Have a paper bag handy
Review: This is the first Tanizaki novel I've read, and I enjoyed it a greay deal, but I hate both of the main characters. The story starts off with Joji a 28 year old bachelor who falls for a pretty, quiet 15 year old girl named Naomi. Many things attact Joji to Naomi: her beauty, her Eurasian features, but the main thing is her name: Naomi. The name is written with three Chinese characters and it could also be a western name. Joji finds this very attractive. He starts to hang out with the girl going to Western restaurants and going to see Western movies. He eventually takes the girl in, wanting to make her a prop lady. He pays for her to take English and music lessons. This is when things start to go downhill. Naomi's english is very poor, and Joji makes her work very hard calling her an idiot when she doesn'yt understand passive voice. Naomi gets angry and very obstinate. As time goes on Joji marries Naomi, but keepos it secret from everyone else. He enjoys washing her body and playing horse with her, treating her like a play thing. They eventually go out and study dancing together, but this leads to more problems because of some of the men Naomi meets. I'm not going any further. Read the book and experience how a weak-willed man acts when the woman he loves cheats on him constantly, but can't get enough of her. See how a respectful business man is reduced to a submissive husband to his teenage wife. Very disturbing, but a good read nonetheless.
Rating:
Summary: torn between two cultures
Review: this novel does a wonderful job of presenting the discursive domination of the west present in japan. the struggle between joji and naomi shows the inability to reconcile cultural identity, which is portrayed in the transition to westernization and a return to tradition. in addition, several other important issues are discussed within the novel, including the empowerment of women and the idea of manufactured definitions (ie the definition of "modernism" within the novel) its appeal lies in the readers inability to truly relate to either of the main characters: joji with his masochistic self and naomi as a briliant sort of moga ("modern girl".) the most tantalizing aspect of the novel is questioning where the blame lies... is joji responsible for naomi's lack of conscience because he took advantage of a young woman with nowhere to turn and molded her into a westernized play thing or would naomi have turned out like this anyway, due to her scandalous background? in reading the novel, also keep in mind whether tanizaki is criticizing the west or the way the west appears in japan?
Rating:
Summary: Tanizaki's Satire of 1920s Japan
Review: This translation of the original Japanese title "Chijin no Ai" (A Fool's Love), can be interpreted as Tanizaki's skewed portrayal of the East versus West culture clash of the 1920s, during the Taisho Period. The principle female character, Naomi, is Tanizaki's exaggerated depiction of a victim of the "moga"
(modern girl) / "mobo" (modern boy) phenomenon. Starting as a young and innocent café waitress, she meets Joji, an independent, frugal, commonsensical engineer who introduces to her several Western ideas, like piano, the English language and Western-style dining. She easily integrates these aspects of Western culture in her life, but soon becomes enormously fascinated. As a result, she develops into a frivolous, egocentric, manipulative, and crass woman. With Naomi's transformation, Joji must learn to compromise between his moral integrity and her demands. The principle male character, Joji, can be seen as Tanizaki's depiction of the struggles between the culture of traditional Japan and the fierce invasion of the cultures of the West. He too undergoes a sort of transformation that may shock readers at the end. Having read many of Tanizaki's other novels, I have discovered this work to be one of his more milder ones in terms of sexual themes. Unlike some of his other novels, readers will not find foot fetishism, physical sadomasochism, or worship of excreta in Naomi. And surprisingly, this novel was still a controversial work in 1920's Japan. Nevertheless, I recommend this novel to readers interested in Japan's prewar Westernization, works of Tanizaki or social satire.
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