CPUL Release: The Makioka Sisters KINDLE MOBI by Junichiro Tanizaki H.A.

The Makioka Sisters (Japanese title: Sasameyuki or light snow) by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki has been hailed by many as Japan’s greatest modern novel. It is Tolstoyan in length and scope as an intricate portrait of an upper-middle class family from Osaka in transition between 1936 to 1941. The decline of their high status, suburban lifestyle hangs over the novel as their world changes during the time leading up to World War II and the shift from living in a peaceable nation to one at war.
The Makioka Sisters is at heart a character study of four very different sisters and the people in their lives, all the while revealing in great detail the attitudes and mores of the middle-wealthy members of Japanese society prior to WWII.
In this sense, it also reads like a Jane Austen novel, with its tale of an arranged marriage intended to restore the family name, no matter the emotional cost for the bride in question.
The story focuses on the family’s attempts to find a husband for Yukiko, the third of four sisters. Yukiko is representative of the past and all the traditions associated with it, while the youngest sister, Taeko, represents the future and the possibilities suggested by modern society. The two siblings are contrasted with one another throughout the novel.
The tone of Tanizaki’s writing is leisurely, meditative and full of elaborate observations about life and society at that time. Overall, there is a feeling of loss; it can be seen as an elegy to the receding aristocratic way of life as it gives way to the modern rendition.
Idea: Add Advanced Search Function for Country of Origin and Language for BOOKS!