Some Japanese fiction for the #1936Club today, in the form of a novella from one of the masters of writing from that country – Jun’ichiro Tanizaki. I’ve owned this particular book for decades (I have a variety of Kodansha Editions books on my shelves), but as far as I can tell, I’ve never read it. So what better time to pick up “A Cat, A Man and Two Women“, translated by Paul McCarthy? My edition is from 1991, and interestingly at that time the trend seems to have been not to mention the translator on the cover of a book – I’m glad this is now changing…

Anyway – in 1936 Tanizaki was working on a massive translation project, that of bringing “The Tale of Genji” into modern Japanese; and as McCarthy’s introduction discusses, the writing of a novella length tale like this must have been a lovely contrast to his larger work. And “A Cat…” is certainly a more modern tale… The story is a domestic one, focusing on Shozo, a lazy man, his ex-wife Shinako, his current wife Fukuko, and the cat Lily. In truth, though, I did think the title might be better given as “A Cat, A Man and Three Women”, as Shozo’s mother does have quite a bit of influence on events…

As the novella opens, Fukuko has been unsettled by a letter from her predecessor, in effect warning her that Shozo loves the cat Lily more than anything else in the world, and to watch out because her days are numbered too. Shinako suggests that Fukuko gets Shozo to hand the cat over to his first wife. Fukuko is supicious and inclined to be dismissive; however, as she observes Shozo with Lily, her jealousy is aroused and a whole series of events are set in motion which will affect all of the participants. Will Shozo part with Lily? Is Fukuko likely to stay in this marriage for long? Will Shinako get Shozo back? And what will happen to the cat?

(She) asked herself how she could ever have hated this lovely, docile little creature. The woman she had been came to seem to her now a very mean and nasty sort of person – a real monster, in fact.

“A Cat…” is a quite brilliantly written book, mainly because of its constantly shifting perspectives. We see a character or event from Fukuko’s point of view and think we have a handle on what’s going on; then the narrative shifts to Shozo’s gaze and suddenly things seem very different. Shinako has a particular take on events, but a return to Shozo’s point of view reveals her as apparently very mistaken. And Shozo’s mother adds another angle to the mix…

It’s a very clever way to tell the story as the changing viewpoints build up a picture of the various participants, and also reveal quite how mistaken many of them are in their perceptions of the other characters. Of course, the one viewpoint we don’t really get is Lily the cat… Various emotions and motivations are ascribed to her by the human characters, but we see her actions rather than thoughts and frankly can’t help feeling sorry for her, being used as a pawn by the humans. However, it does seem that it’s only in relation to Lily that the human characters develop real emotions and empathy, which says much about the tangled web the man and the two women have woven!

Tanizaki is known for producing longer works like “The Makioka Sisters”, so a shorter work like this is perhaps unexpected, and certainly a treat! The novella is very witty in places, with the author regularly skewering his characters’ motivations. It also reveals much about Japanese life at the time, and as McCarthy points out in his introduction, is unusual in that Tanizaki sets his work amongs ordinary, working class people as opposed to the more moneyed classes he often writes about. “A Cat, A Man and Two Women” was a wonderful read, and proof, if it was needed, that I really need to dig more of those unread books off the shelves!