Someone Finds Wormwood Sweet

The novel "Someone Finds Wormwood Sweet" (1929) is among the best examples of Tanizaki's prose. It tells the story of an unhappy marriage: a husband and wife have long been burdened by their ties, but instead of parting ways and gaining the desired freedom, they continue to torment themselves and each other... However, the main interest of the novel lies not in the plot conflict per se, but in its atmosphere. The lyrical beginning permeates the entire fabric of the narrative, linking together the objectivity of descriptions and the subjectivity of the author's evaluations, the memory of the past and the experience of the present, nature and art, the vital and the mundane. The world of the novel is non-hierarchical; everything is equally valuable, and each specific detail possesses a special quality which in Japanese is called 'mono no aware' - the sad charm of things.