This is my first review under A Cat Series. I’ve heard a lot about Jun’ichirō Tanizaki but this is my first book of him. My English version, awesomely translated by Paul McCarthy, is published by Daunt Books in 2015. (I guess there is an older version published in 1990). Tanizaki published the original novella in 1936 under the title Neko to Shōzō to futari no onna (猫と庄造と二人の女) and a film adaptation was released in 1956.

It’s a love triangle — plus a cat. After the divorce, Shinako sent a letter to Fukuko, the new wife of her ex-husband Shozo, to give Lily the cat to her. Shozo already had a new wife and Shinako was by herself. Fukuoko ignored it because she thought Shinako was being manipulative; she just wanted Shozo to visit her if Lily was with her — until she found out that Shozo was indeed close to Lily. He loved Lily so much: caring everything about Lily, sleeping with Lily, giving the cat an affectionate love a woman could ask from her husband. Shinako used to be very jealous of that feline, and now Fukuko felt the same thing too. She felt she was the third person in Shozo-Lily relationship. Shozo’s mother once took that kind of jealousy to make Shinako left Shozo. The mother-in-law wanted to have better daughter. But now Fukuko’s jealousy was a problem for her too. Shozo, a spoiled son he was, started to react. And Lily enjoyed her fish, purring and sensing when someone gave her love and food.

The arrival of Shinako’s letter just then should have had the effect of fanning [Fukuko’s] jealousy; but, on the contrary, it served to dampen the explosion of emotion that was just about to occur. Had Shinako only kept silent, Fukuko would have insisted on setlling once and for all the matter of Lily’s unwelcome presence, which she felt she couldn’t endure another dat, by having her sent off to Shinako. But to had over the cat now, afte rthe other woman’s attempt to stir up trouble with that insidious letter, was unthinkable — it would seem like giving in, … which emotion should she yield to?

This novel is quite something. Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, as popular as his name, writes a clever story of everyday marriage problem with the cat as his device. From Lily, we gradually learn about those characters, their personality, their changes of attitude. The cat, being an ordinary pet, turns out become the core of this story, and Tanizaki is skillful in playing around the plot and giving his characters reasons to react around the cat in a very sensible way. I enjoy it so much, as I chuckled knowing how peculiar human is when it comes about pet and the tension of human/non-human love.

One part that I like the most is when Shinako finally found herself loving Lily too. I think the cleverness of Tanizaki is on the ways he portrays the complexity of human emotions. The cat is “just” a cat, and people around her tried to making sense of her and behaviour. And on that process of making sense, they found their own emotions, their position in a family — as a women, a mother-in-law, a husband. With no conclusion or any resolution (the last scene was Shozo hiding and running away from Shinako because he visited the cat without her knowing), this story gives an excellent picture about a complex relationship, with an appearance of a lovable cat. Lily is the star, indeed.