THE WAITING YEARS BY FUMIKO ENCHI

My appreciation and love of Japanese literature notwithstanding, I can’t help but comment on the deep strain of perversity in Japanese literature….This is of course a reflection on how life was or is lived not a creation of a writer’s imagination…. The details contained in a book like THE WAITING YEARS by Fumiko Enchi are taken from real life….This explains in many ways coupled with the death/honor obsession that while I am as already noted a fan of Japanese literature I am not a Japanophile the way I am an Anglophile.

THE WAITING YEARS concerns Tomo the regal and formal wife of a government official at the turn of the last century who is asked by her husband, a notorious womanizer, to find him a concubine….This would be a woman ostensibly hired as a maid but whose job is to be mistress….Tomo who suffers poor self-confidence due to coming from an impoverished background goes along with this which in turn sets into motion other events….

What I appreciated about this book was how Enchi would show what was on the mind of one character and then shift to the mind of another character and show their viewpoint….I also liked the ending which found one small cutting comment by someone who has been taken advantage of their whole life is enough to start the dominoes falling.

Most of the characters are impressions rather than fully realized personalities (other than Tomo the strongest character here) but that’s okay….Often, Enchi makes a comment about a character by showing what they are wearing or how another person sees them even Yukitomo, the husband who besides sleeping with the barely pubescent virgin concubine rapes a maid(also a virgin) and sleeps with his daughter in law….

This seeming ease of narrative is a trademark of the best Japanese writers and at times, Enchi reminds me of my favorite Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata.

The truth is THE WAITING YEARS is also a very strong feminist novel….One that shows the powerlessness of women at this point in Japanese history….That alone makes this a very important novel in Japanese literary history.