This is written by the author as though a desperate housewife is telling him personally about her affairs and marriage problems.

I gave up about a third of the way in, i couldn't take it any more.

If you're the kind of person that likes reading about chaos in other people's relationships then it might just suit you, but that's not my thing at all.

Awful main character.

Bye for now. ( )

La croce buddista o la manifestazione di tutte le cose, oppure il sole.

...voleva che non avessimo altro desiderio o interesse al mondo se non quello di vivere unicamente alla luce di un sole chiamato Mitsuko, ...
(pagina 144)

La croce buddista non è altro che un quadrato dove la simmetria è perfetta; dove nessun lato può vincere sull'altro.

Per una volta, il titolo inglese - Quicksand (Sabbie mobili) - rende solo in parte l'idea del libro. ( )

"Quicksand" focuses on the growing lesbian relationship between a young married woman and a woman she meets at a kind of art college. Their relationship is tempestuous and draws others closer to the maelstrom, to terrible, tragic effect. The title of the book is as good a clue to what happens as anything else. The book is well-written - and well-translated - and carries the reader along very effectively; if you are curious about 1920s Japan this book will be of great interest to you. ( )

A condensed, swirling, heated storm of a novel. A beautiful accomplishment, a masterpiece. I loved this book, I would read it again, I will read it again. I’ve read several books by Tanizaki, and while he sticks pretty consistently to one theme, that is, the destructive power of love, this novel may be one of his most poignant expressions. Tanizaki is both a bold and a boring writer. He seemed to not care what people think, to write about dark obsessions no one talks about and he shied away from nothing. He wasn’t squeamish, you’d probably have to tear off the covers if you were a contemporary reader in Japan, reading his book on the train. But my goodness, the story was captivating. It was a steamy black-and-white film, nearly as soft and succulent as Kobo Abe’s Woman in the Dunes, but more down-to-earth, even more sensual, and quiet and easy. A satisfying one-day read. ( )

A wonderful, completely twisted, often times very funny tale about paranoia. Tanizaki's characters live in a world of lies, and I've rarely encountered a book better at making the reader as suspicious of everything as the characters are. Every relationship in the novel is defined in terms of who is the liar and who is the one being taken in. Eventually, all the characters, and I was too, begin to become completely paranoid and convinced they are the ones being lied to while everybody else knows the truth. The last 1/10th or so of the book is especially insane, with the characters descending into full blown madness. I know Tanizaki had to have had a good laugh when he ends the novel with another heavy dose of paranoia for the reader to drink. ( )