The three pieces in this collection--the novella -A Cat, A Man, and Two Women- and two shorter pieces -The Little Kingdom- and -Professor Rado---are lighthearted and entertaining variations on one of Tanizaki's favorite preoccupations: dominance and submission in relationships, complicated even further here by customs, public opinion, and comic grotesqueries. In the title piece, the bumbling Shozo is caught in the middle of an ongoing struggle between his ex-wife and her younger successor. Shozo would prefer to stay out of it and be peacefully left alone with his elegant tortoiseshell cat...
The three pieces in this collection--the novella -A Cat, A Man, and Two Women- and two shorter pieces -The Little Kingdom- and -Professor Rado---are l...