The Makioka Sisters (edició 1957)

A novel of utmost serenity contradicting the turmoil brewing within the Makioka family and Japan at the onset of WWII. What seemed to be a tale of sister bonding on the surface jeopardised by different, clashing personalities turned out to be a complicated family affair built upon reputation, pride, and long-gone wealth. This was often fraught with tension — taking shape in forms of jealousy, insecurity, ill-health, and submissiveness — and was a deep reflection of Japanese tradition especially on marriage and women's role in society.

Conservatism was a big part of the novel. This was often frustrating to read about due to its unfortunate and apparent presence in our society even today. How limiting it was I can't imagine being bred in such an environment despite one of the sisters being set apart as a "representation of modernism", ie., not wearing a kimono often, earning money for one's self, and the desire to get higher education (but even these felt like a farce as the book's twists negated some of these ideas rather described as "rebellion"). The constant search for the perfect husband, economically, physically, and mentally, for one of the sisters was also Austenesque.

The Makioka Sisters spoke of cherry blossoms, family dinners, and soft conversations. It also spoke of how being deeply unyielding with regards to family traditions may break a family. All these women were dependent on their husbands without any choice on the matter with the saving grace of having a heartwarming and aptly sentimental connection with each other (Sachiko particularly is the best of the sisters). The enduring quality of this novel was how it could be taken apart in so many ways yet you're still left with more to take apart. Absolutely memorable. ( )

The second world war looms, but the Makioka sisters are concerned with social obligations, family ceremonies and marrying off the two youngest sisters, Yukiko and Taeko.

A wonderful book, full of the minutiae of life in a middle-class family in the Japan of the thirties.

Highly recommended ( )

The Makioka Sisters

Now here is something. A book of mind numbing detail. Pages and pages of it. Ritual, protocol and discipline. Sounds bad but it is wonderful. It is the story of 4 sisters in Japan from the turn of the 20th  Century up to and into WW2. It is about their lives, the shape of their lives and the content of their lives.
 
It was not until I was a fair way into this book that I realised that the sisters live lives that were prescribed in the 1700's. They live in a world that is vanishing but they don't know it. It is only by oblique references that you can work out what's happening in the outside world. For that is where the rest of the world is - outside.
 
I liked very much that the picture that is built up in this book comes from the myriad of details that assails you from the get go.
 
As a picture of an era that is passing this makes The Remains of the Day look like an episode of The Simpsons ( )

Read, favourite. ( )

At once both a sweeping study of 5 years of Japanese social history and a perfectly toned study of family life, Tanizaki's novel is rightly judged a classic. Each of the four sisters is wonderfully created, and the social and familial relationships that defined Japanese society in the period in which the novel is set (1936-1941) give the reader a wonderful insight. A must-read. ( )