For years Kazu has run her fashionable restaurant with a combination of charm and shrewdness. But when the she falls in love with one of her clients, an aristocratic retired politician, she renounces her business in order to become his wife. But it is not so easy to renounce her independent spirit, and eventually Kazu must choose between her marriage and the demands of her irrepressible vitality. After the Banquet is a magnificent portrait of political and domestic warfare. Redoubtable middle-aged Kazu falls hopelessly in love with Yuken Noguchi, idealist politician of the Radical Party. The problem is, Noguchi cannot see practical politics for what it is: a form of ideological prostitution. Kazu, who has come up in the world the hard way, bears no illusions - Noguchi, for all his bookish wisdom, has a lot of them. Kazu is the proprietor of a Setsugoan, an After-Snow-Retreat, where she is in the habit of entertaining the high-and-the-mighty of Japan. One day after a banquet, Tamaki, former ambassador to Germany, collapses in the toilet. The subsequent hullabaloo manages to throw Noguchi and Kazu together, and this gentleman of sixty and woman of fifty find themselves falling head-over-heels in love like teenagers. They become man and wife, and soon afterwards, Noguchi is chosen to run for office by the Radical Party. What is essentially an ideological fight for him, however, is just a fight for victory for his wife. Her methods, which are not wholly fair and aboveboard, invite Noguchi's wrath and their relationship soon begins to crack. And soon, Caesar's wife is attacked: then events proceed at a pace which nobody can control With vast psychological acuity and an unblinking insight into the nature of political and domestic warfare, Yukio Mishima creates a portrait of a marriage in which lofty principles clash fatally with appetite and ambition.With vast psychological acuity and an unblinking insight into the nature of political and domestic warfare, Yukio Mishima creates a portrait of a marriage in which lofty principles clash fatally with appetite and ambition. For years Kazu has run her fashionable restaurant with a combination of charm and shrewdness. But when the middle-aged entrepreneur falls in love with one of her clients, an aristocratic retired politician, she renounces her business in order to become his wife.In time, however, the restless Kazu decides to resurrect her husband's political career. In doing so, she embarks on a series of compromises and evasions that will force her to choose between her marriage and the demands of her irrepressible vitality. With its subtle ambiguities and its complex, vibrant heroine, After the Banquet is a magnificent novel.
with Vast Psychological Acuity And An Unblinking Vision Of The Stratagems Of Marital Warfare, The Author Tells Of The Shrewd But Charming Kuzu Who Must Choose Between Her Marriage And The Demands Of Her Irrepressible Vitality.
library Journal
published In The United States During The 1960s But Written Years Earlier, This Mishima Trio, While Vastly Different In Plot, All Sport The Common Theme Of Idealism Destroyed By Reality. Nearly Three Decades After His Death, Mishima Continues To Be A Compelling Novelist. (lj 1/15/63, Lj 3/15/68, Lj 9/1/69) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Reissued along side The Sound of the Waves plus three classics works by Junichiro Tanizaki.
