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Rating: 
Summary: Some prefer nettles
Review: Despite what the cover and the summary on the back tell you, theres not an overwhelming importance placed on the puppet theatre or even the extra-marital affairs of Misako and Kaname. The focus is more the contrast between the new and the old, and the realities and consequences that surround Kaname's and Misako's decision to divorce. For instance, much is made about the impact the divorce will have on their young child or how people will respond socially to the divorce. The ending itself was something odd, it leaves you abruptly in the middle of a scene and youre left with no knowledge of what happens to anyone, only a description of O-hisa's face. Overall though the book was an engaging read, not as good as Naomi, but intresting in its own ways and certaintly different.
Rating: 
Summary: Culture collision!
Review: I use this book where I teach in conjunction with Tanizaki's essay on Japanese aesthetics, "On Praise of Shadows." Read together, they rate a "10." Some Prefer Nettles is rich in understatement and irony, most of which is appreciated having read the essay. Kaname's struggle is not local to the time and place of Japan c. 1930; it is a human struggle to understand one's relationship to one's community, regardless of the culture. It's so resonant perhaps because it is autobiographical. Missing in broad strokes are Tanizaki's characteristic fetishes; however, the book is wonderfully written and contains interesting anthropological insights for the non-Japanese reader. Again, with "Shadows..." a highly recommended novel.
Rating:
Summary: A lovely book.
Review: Tanizaki's powers of description are as potent here as in passages of "Sasame Yuki." As usual he brings time and place to vivid and delicately observed life. His characters are also convincing - seemingly without effort. The messiness inside them is in no way culturally specific to Japan of a certain era - whether or not it is meant to comment upon the riot of societal changes that usually provide the petri dish in which Tanizaki's protagonists are swimming. This book is worth reading slowly. It is also worth someday reading again.
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Summary: Subtle Heartbreak and Frustration
Review: The plot development in this book is virtually non-existent. To cap it all off, the ending sucks. You are led to believe that the book might get interesting in the end, but NO! I would not recommend this book to anyone because it is awful. A good ending could have saved it, but the ending was terrible.
Rating: 
Summary: A melancholic separation
Review: This is a novel about the old and the young generation in the 1920s in Japan.
A couple of the new one wants to separate because their sexual passion has disappeared. The father of the woman tries to convince the couple to continue to stay together.
"The reason for their decision to separate was that they did not want to grow old, that they wanted to be free to live their youth again." (p.31) The novel is autobiographic and symbolic, which is well explained by the well-known and outstanding translator E. Seidensticker.
But the story should more appeal to the Japanese than to foreign readers, because it refers regularly to authentic Japanese themes as the old and new Japanese puppet theatre or the motif of the woman as a doll.
It is shrouded in a sad and melancholic atmosphere. Only for the Tanizaki aficionados.
Rating:
Summary: Quietly brilliant
Review: This was a fantastic book. I had never read anything else by this author and so started this book with absolutely no expectations. I had picked it up at a used book shop (I love those stores!) and was so taken with the book I finished it in one sitting. It seems that most of the books I've been reading recently have concerned themselves with the conflict between modernity and tradition and none have done so so adeptly as this one. Five stars for Some Prefer Nettles and recommended to anyone who can read.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite Tanizaki
Review: This was the first Tanizaki novel I read and I still like it better than "The Key" or "Diary of a Mad Old Man," both good books and seemingly more popular in the US. The best theme in modern Japanese literature, in my opinion, is the conflict between traditional and modern (i.e. Western) cultures, and this book explores that theme well. The smug protagonist who begins to question what he considers to be modern thinking makes for interesting reading, and is a good illustration for studying modern Japanese culture.
Rating:
Summary: Another Winner From Tanizaki
Review: This work centers around a married couple who have been very distant from each other for some time. Divorce is always being thought of & talked about, but is never carried out. The wife has been having an affair with another man for quite some time. Their son is caught in the middle, suspecting what's going on, but never being filled in by his parents. A relative takes care of that, telling the boy about their troubles on an out-of-town trip. The book has an ending that's familiar to Japanese literature....it bewilders the reader. The story isn't wrapped up & the reader is left with possible endings swirling in his imagination. A brilliant work of art.
Rating:
Summary: Another Winner From Tanizaki
Review: This work centers around a married couple who have been very distant from each other for some time. Divorce is always being thought of & talked about, but is never carried out. The wife has been having an affair with another man for quite some time. Their son is caught in the middle, suspecting what's going on, but never being filled in by his parents. A relative takes care of that, telling the boy about their troubles on an out-of-town trip. The book has an ending that's familiar to Japanese literature....it bewilders the reader. The story isn't wrapped up & the reader is left with possible endings swirling in his imagination. A brilliant work of art.
Rating:
Summary: Individual freedom vs. cultural traditions.
Review: Written in 1929, Some Prefer Nettles is as relevant and fresh today as it was more than seventy years ago. Illuminating the conflict between the old, traditional ways of Japan and western, "modern" influences, obvious in Tokyo even in the 1920's, this story of an unsuccessful marriage could be contemporary, except in the details. The social unacceptability of divorce in Japanese culture and the resulting tensions felt by three generations of a Japanese family allow the western reader to enter an emotional world, a world of conflict rarely shared with outsiders and almost never understood. Kaname and his wife Misako "do not excite each other," but they are stuck, perhaps permanently, in their loveless marriage. If Misako leaves Kaname, she will have to return to her father's home, a social outcast, without her son, who will stay with his father. Kaname will also suffer--he has failed as a husband. Considering himself "modern," Kaname has allowed Misako to take a lover, while he finds satisfaction in geisha houses and with prostitutes. As we follow this unhappy couple, we watch Kaname come increasingly under the influence of his conservative, traditional father-in-law, becoming more and more fascinated with old traditions--wearing the kimono, visiting the Bunraku puppet theatre, and appreciating the behavior of O-hisa, his father-in-law's doll-like mistress--while Misako relentlessly pursues materialistic and selfish goals, presumably western. Tanazaki creates beautifully realized domestic scenes, and his subtle dialogue reveals character by what is not said as much by what is said. Kaname is a sympathetic character torn by his culture and loyalties, a man at the mercy of a cultural tradition which he also embraces. The culture itself is presented lucidly, allowing the reader to admire both the depth of its traditions and the forms, artistic and otherwise, through which it is expressed. This fascinating novel offers a westerner much to contemplate as we see how our emphasis on the individual engenders inevitable conflicts with societies valuing tradition and cultural uniformity.
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