Any book of stories that begins with a story about sadism and masochism among children is likely to have more than a few surprises in store—and so it is with this collection. You may love it, you may hate it, but odds are you won’t be indifferent to these stories, all of which are—in one way or another—about power and its uses. Other stories focus on cross-dressing, food as pornography, a fetishistic obsession with a (very specific) human body, and a last, impossible-to-summarize story that ends in the toilet bowl (literally). There is one story that doesn’t fit this nearly phantasmagorical grouping: a straightforward story about two young Buddhist acolytes who do not know (for almost believable reasons) what a woman is or looks like. One leaves the monastery to investigate and never returns; the other is eventually forced to choose between joining his friend or remaining at the monastery…. Recommended for the, uh, curious. ( )

This collection of stories revisits many of Tanizaki’s usual subjects – various erotic obsessions, sadomasochistic relationships, the juxtaposition of the gross and the sublime. The stories all go by very fast – not only is there the question “Where is this going to go?” but one often finds oneself wondering “How far will he go?” The two longest stories, the title one and “Mr. Bluemound” pile up more and more details about their characters’ obsessions, with scenes that straddle the line between absurd and horrible. While “The Two Acolytes” is a departure from most of Tanizaki’s work – that one seems to reconcile the tension between the body and the spirit in a quiet way – the rest of the stories fit nicely together, starting with a story about children, moving through disillusioned men who need ever more extreme stimuli, and ending with an old married man who has memories and dreams that touch on earlier subjects, but everything is burned out now.

In “The Children”, the narrator befriends an aristocratic brother and sister and finds himself drawn into their sadomasochistic games. Even in this early story, there is a touch of the surreal and fanciful, which is seen throughout the entire collection.

The narrator of “The Secret” is an ennui-filled man who hopes that moving somewhere private and out of the way in the city will alleviate his dullness. He thinks up more fanciful ways to amuse himself, but his excursions while crossdressing lead to a new adventure altogether.

“The Two Acolytes” are boys who have been raised in a Buddhist monastery on an isolated mountain. They have never seen a woman before and both develop obsessions with the unknown but supposedly beautiful women, but they end up on two different paths.

“The Gourmet Club” is a group of rich, idle men who are obsessed with food and eating, but their overrefined palates have left them in continual pursuit of ever-different, ever-better tastes. One of the members stumbles onto a group of Chinese expats with a similar culinary obsession. He desperately wants to taste their food but ends up spying on the feast. He is inspired to make dining a total experience, often in grotesque ways. This one had a feverish narrative and lots of vivid, almost surreal descriptions of food. Good stuff.

“Mr. Bluemound” is probably the most extreme story in the collection. It starts out with a familiar premise – a well-known director plucked a young, beautiful girl out of obscurity, made her a star with his movies, and married her. This story often has somewhat controlling and objectifying overtones, but this is nothing compared to the superfan that the director meets. A stranger that he encounters is obsessed with his wife and describes his obsession with mounting creepy intensity. He keeps going on and on and ends with scenes that are somehow hilarious and horrifying at the same time.

In the final story, “Manganese Dioxide Dreams”, an older man and his family visit Tokyo and see movies, visit the theater and eat at restaurants. His thoughts wander to the erotic and violent, but there’s less obsession now, more cool analysis, and although he goes over all the food he’s eating, there are concerns about health - a sharp contrast to “The Gourmet Club”. ( )

A compilation of some interesting short stories from japanese writer Jun'ichiro Tanizaki. I wouldn't recomend it to a sensible audience though as some of the stories are a bit harsh in my opinion. I would recomend it to a mature, not too susceptible audience instead.

Good book of short stories. I now think that the script of the the movie "The Freshman" was lifted from one of the title story. ( )