Naomi (Vintage International)

When I first picked up "Naomi", known as "Chijin no Ai" in Japanese, it was in a Japanese literature class at my University. My first exposure to Tanizaki came in reading a short story called "The Tattooer" ("Shisei", which can be found in another collection of his short stories called "Seven Japanese Tales" in English), so I knew he was a good writer with some perverse ideas. Little did I know what I was in for with "Naomi". We were to read it in a week, which is quite the task with a full schedule. I finished it in three days and reread it a week later. I was amazed at its intricacies. The story is set in early 1920s Japan, a period when the import of Western fashion, style and culture was at its height and every Japanese person found him or herself enamored with imported American and European literature, dance, clothing and people. Naomi is a young Japanese waitress with a Western look that a man named Joji finds himself obsessing over at first sight. Even her name, he remarks, resembles Western names. He adopts her and begins to mold her into his perfect woman. The story follows his continual perfecting of her behavior, and her treatment of him. The question soon arises, however, as to who is truly the dominant force in their fragile relationship. In what I've now come to find is Tanizaki standard, all is never as it seems, and the relationships established throughout the story are rarely as simple as they first appear. "Naomi" serves as a primer to Tanizaki's entire body of work, being one of his earliest full-length novels and coming before his shift from an obsession with the West to a love of his own traditional Japanese culture. Since reading it, I've had the opportunity to read much of the rest of his work, and I'm thankful I started with "Naomi". Tanizaki is cited as shifting his views of the West soon after the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 and "Naomi", published in 1924, is his work at that tipping point. Although on the surface it seems to praise a Western infatuation, it throws into question what damage it's doing to the Japanese mind and culture. A powerful work of perverse fiction, and a great introduction to the twisted, cerebral world of Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, I highly recommend "Naomi" to readers tired of the typical stories that are so prevalent in our modern literature and as an introduction to the world of one of the greatest 20th century Japanese authors.

I admit, that manga series was what made me but this. But this book! Darkly intriguing, strangely humorous, and painfully realistic. It is sort of like Lolita I guess... But you have to remember things were different in Japan then. It still manages to be a little creepy, now and then, but never fails to be a good read. The end... Hm. It felt real but I just kind of shook my head because seriously? But people do weirder things in real life I suppose. I would recommend this, easily, especially if you're a fan of Bungo Stray Dogs, the anime or manga. Still a good classic read if you're not though!

Naomi, translated from the Japanese was an entertaining read. I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading this one, but by the time I was finished I had a big smile on my face. The story takes place in 1920's Tokyo, where Naomi, a 15 year-old from a poor background works as a waitress at the Diamond Cafe. She is an attractive girl with "Eurasian" features. When Joji, a 28-year old Engineer, first sets eyes on her, he thinks she is beautiful, and before long he becomes obsessed with her. He thinks she has the perfect blend of eastern and Western features and a beautiful if not somewhat unusual name. Joji in contrast is nothing to look at, he's short, has "bad teeth" and is socially inept. Initially Joji sees himself as a father figure for Naomi, but deep down thinks he can transform her into the perfect Western woman. She comes to live with him and initially does some household chores for him. He tries to teach her English and even pays for her to take music lessons. She isn't very good at either, but he still has hopes of molding her into the perfect woman, and then making her his perfect, beautiful wife. They do marry, but it isn't long before Joji's plan backfire. Naomi soon begins to take total control over him. She becomes manipulative, spends more money than he makes, and quite plainly does what she wants to do and sees who she wants to see including other men. She makes a fool out of Joji. Joji the protagonist of this story is really a pathetic man who has lost all respect. Even when he tells Naomi to move out, he finds he misses her and, she knows what cords to pull to keep him interested in her, and finds reason after reason to return to the house when he is there. Having lost all self-respect, Joji feels like he has to put up with Naomi calling the shots. I really liked this story and it packs a punch for a short book -- about 250 pages or so, and it made me chuckle at times as well. I found Naomi to be almost a cautionary tale about what can happen when you try to make someone into the type of person you want them to be. I think we all know that it rarely works and the person, in most cases, just resents the other person for having tried. It's a great read - Try it!

I consider this book a bit dark, but it might not be dark to others. Prime example of an "uneven" relationship, with Naomi having much more power in the relationship than the narrator. I consider it something of a foil to "Lolita". I really liked reading it, although the description on the back of the book mentions that its supposed to be somewhat comedic, its not what I consider conventionally funny. The plot is that the main character essentially "adopts" Naomi with the goals of making a perfect, well educated, ideal wife from a girl who's still a young at 15. She's more than a handful though, as she isn't as easily molded as he expected. For the sake of not spoiling the story, I'll stop there. But the story addresses power struggles in relationships.

Naomi is the story of a man who becomes painfully obsessed with an adolescent girl and takes "possession" of her in order to form her into his vision of a sublimely sophisticated and western influenced partner. He is attracted to her initially because of her somewhat western features so his secondary obsession with Western culture ( this is set in 1920s Tokyo) underlines and magnifies his flawed vision of the girl. Part Lolita and part Frankenstein, the story begins with his manipulation of her but she grows into a self absorbed and selfish creature who seems to delight in his humiliation. Written in a very straightforward style and with an excellent translation in this version, Naomi is a novel that is set in a Japan going through significant social changes and the portrayal that Tanazaki provides of a Tokyo in transition and the underside of a society with a collective inferiority complex is deeply atmospheric and gritty. In turn the two main characters are fairly despicable and yet the book resonates and made me want to explore more of this man's work.

The book itself is great as others have described in their reviews, but the translation for the Kindle version is surprisingly bad. I'm assuming it's not the same for others as they make no mention of this and there are hardcover and paperback copies of this book. It is for the most part comprehensible, though it's plagued with incorrect pronoun usage and repetition. This is usually a phrase being repeated twice, but it occasionally gets really bad; you'll see a phrase repeated so many times that a giant chunk of the page is effectively gibberish. Quotation marks seem to be omitted in some cases too, which makes the narrative harder to follow. Literally had to look at the other reviews to make sure I wasn't going crazy. That said, I do recommend this book, but stay away from the Kindle version.

It's so...How do I start? I watched the film adaptation of the book first, and it was a very erotic piece just from the poster. The story is actually more intense, and there are lots of hidden meanings inside if you studied Japanese History, or simply being an Asian in the Western world. It reminded me that when I was a teenager I was in Tokyo and I always see group of girls talking about make-ups and theres one simple goal: to be like a westerner. We want to make our eyes bigger, noses higher, lips fuller, double eye-lids, pale white faces, everything in west standards. Where is this norm came from? Read the book and re-think about it.

didn't arrive damaged. amazing novel. simple language, complex story. has you giggling, but leaves you thinking. if predatory behavior/infidelity is something you can't handle, don't. kind of weird, but I liked it.

Great book, the summary is extremely accurate. Normal book quality, not damaged during delivery or anything, timely delivery. Great experience.

Llegó en excelente estado, tiene una textura muy buena, increíble edición.

an awesome story with a perfect flow

In very good condition, lovely old book smell, great story!

Le récit d'un amour fou et inconditionnel pour une (trop) jeune fille et un homme un peu trop mur. Naomi est l'archétype des "modern girl" de l'ère Meiji, qui a précipité le Japonais la modernité. L'anglais utilisé est facile à lire.