Fumiko Enchi has worked on Onnazaka for eight years, which has been translated to English under the title of The Waiting Years. The novelist-critic Takami Jun describes it as “a rare jewel among masterpieces of modern literature”.
The novel reveals how the family system of Meiji Japan (1868-1912) leads to an exploitation of the women and treats various problems which the protagonist Tomo Shirakawa faces. The role of the concubines provides a profound double structure. … mehrThe novel is a fictional transfor-mation of Enchi’s grandmother Ine’s painful life who endured a polygynous marriage with a man from a samurai family. The protagonist’s suffering and pain expresses Enchi’s own pro-test against the system and the maltreatment of women. weniger