Some Prefer Nettle

This is one of my all-time favorite novels, and I have read it about once a year for the last ten. It is a beautiful illustration of cultural struggle, as well as the personal frustrations of a marriage falling apart. It ends in classic Japanese style-- uncertainly-- allowing the reader to wonder and imagine what happens next.

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. Mary Whipple

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.

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.

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.