In the last book he wrote before he died,Junichiro Tanizaki
returns to a theme that dominates much of his earlier work:
the
relationship between sexual desire and the will to live. Diary of a
Mad Old Man, first published as Futen Rojin Nikki in 1962, is the
journal of Tokusuke Utsugi, a 77-year-old man of refined tastes who
is recovering from a stroke caused by an excess of sexual
excitement. He discovers that even while his body is breaking down,
his libido rages on, unwittingly sparked by the gentle, kind-ly
attentions of his daughter-in-law Satsuko, a sophisticated,
flashy,cosmopolitan dancer with a shady past. Utsugi records both
his past desires and his current efforts to bribe his
daughter-in-law to provide sexual favors in return for Western
baubles. Pitiful and ridiculous as he is, he is without a trace of
self-pity, and much ofthe book, especially the scene in which
Satsuko explains the differ-ence between necking and petting,
shines with humor. Here in this short novel is much of the
tragicomedy of human existence.