Naomi

Junichiro Tanizakis Naomi is both a hilarious story of one mans obsession and a brilliant reckoning of a nations cultural confusion.

When twenty-eight-year-old Joji first lays eyes upon the teenage waitress Naomi, he is instantly smitten by her exotic, almost Western appearance. Determined to transform her into the perfect wife and to whisk her away from the seamy underbelly of post-World War I Tokyo, Joji adopts and ultimately marries Naomi, paying for English and music lessons that promise to mold her into his ideal companion. But as she grows older, Joji discovers that Naomi is far from the nave girl of his fantasies. And, in Tanizakis masterpiece of lurid obsession, passion quickly descends into comically helpless masochism.