"...I was taken in by Miss Naomi, but the truth is, it was my own foolishness."
I couldn't help but think of Contempt by Alberto Moravia as I was reading Naomi. Although the first is written by an Italian author, and the later is Japanese, both novels address marriage and the disaster it can become.
When Joji meets Naomi at the Diamond Cafe she is a teenager whom he sees as "ingenuous and naive, shy and melancholy..." He determines to make an educated woman out of her, a women who is knowledgeable in music and English, a woman who is refined and genteel. He pays for lessons, and her extensive wardrobe, and everything she desires even though he quickly runs through the savings account he has been so diligent about building. What he doesn't expect is that she will become a rough, extravagant, insolent woman who takes advantage of him at every turn.
Their marriage quickly dissolves into shambles. At first he is unaware of her deceptions, the way that she carries on with other young men behind his back. But even when it all comes to light, he is unable to let her go. In fact, he completely debases himself so that she will continue to live with him; there is nothing he won't do for her presence in his life.
It his hard to understand such sacrifice. Joji himself admits his foolishness, his powerlessness in the face of his obsession. And so we are left wondering about the influence of our emotions, thinking about the effect they can have in a relationship when one has forsaken himself for the object of his obsession.
Posted in Junichiro Tanizaki
Tagged Japanese Literature, Japanese Literature Challenge 9
