THE KEY by Junichiro Tanizaki (Vintage:...

THE KEY by Junichiro Tanizaki (Vintage: $10.00). This icily erotic novel is written in the form of two diaries written by a long-married couple. The husband, a dour professor, complains of what he perceives as the sexual reticence of his old-fashioned wife, Ikuko. She confesses she has grown bored with this dreary, unperceptive man, but her rigidly traditional upbringing precludes any thought of divorce: “My husband can’t seem to understand that mine is a pale, secret flame, not one that flares up brilliantly.” It soon becomes apparent that these mismatched partners are keeping diaries not for themselves, but for each other, and their surreptitious readings become their only meaningful form of communication. The arrival of the handsome Kimura, ostensibly a suitor for the couple’s priggish daughter, upsets this precarious equilibrium, setting in motion the bizarre chain of events that climaxes in a death that can be interpreted as suicide--or murder.