Best Crime Novels (6): Peter Lovesey, Jean-Patrick Manchette, Henning Mankell, Seicho Matsumoto, Ed McBain, Horace McCoy, Val McDermid, Ian McEwan, William McIlvanney, and Margaret Millar

In this installment novels from Britain (2), France, Sweden, Japan, U.S. (2), Scotland (2) and Canada: Peter Lovesey, Jean-Patrick Manchette, Henning Mankell, Seicho Matsumoto, Ed McBain, Horace McCoy, Val McDermid, Ian McEwan, William McIlvanney, and Margaret Millar.

51. LOVESEY, Peter: The False Inspector Dew (1982, Britain)

A cleverly composed crime comedy in which not a word is wasted – even the treatment of the sinking of the Lusitania at the beginning, while seemingly just introductory, is crucial to the plot. It is 1921 and Alma Webster, a reader of romances, is passionately in love with her dentist, Walter Baranov. There is only one problem: he is married to Lydia, a wealthy actress. On top of that, Lydia decides she and Walter will move to California as she wants to try her hand at the movies. Inspired by the Dr Crippen case, the lovers plot to murder Lydia on the trip to America, aboard the ocean liner Mauretania. Alma plays the role of Lydia (after she has disappeared), and in a playful whim Walter takes on the identity of Inspector Walter Dew, Crippen’s nemesis. Then it is discovered that a woman on board has been murdered and the captain invites “Inspector Dew” to investigate. The inexperienced Walter is unexpectedly successful in his new metier…
 

52. MANCHETTE, Jean-Patrick: Fatale (1977, France)

Aimée Joubert is a femme fatale and a professional killer, who comes to wreak mayhem on the despicable bourgeoisie of the backwater town of Bléville. Posing as an innocent (although a drop-dead gorgeous one), she sniffs out dormant and new grudges hidden under the small-minded parochialism, self-interested parish politics, and rampant corruption.

Jean-Patrick Manchette transformed the modern crime thriller into a weapon of gleeful satire and anarchic fun. In his mixture of farce, mayhem and madness, anything goes. His books are riotously enjoyable, but shouldn’t be taken too seriously - especially the short novel Fatale, which is Manchette's bloodiest, funniest and most brilliantly cathartic thriller yet.

Jean-Patrick Manchette (1942–1995) was a genre-redefining French crime novelist, screenwriter, critic, and translator. In addition to Fatale, he wrote Three to Kill, The Prone Gunman, Nada and The Mad and the Bad.

53. MANKELL, Henning: Faceless Killers (1997, Sweden)

Kurt Wallander, is a police inspector living and working in Ystad, is a small medieval town at the southernmost tip of Sweden, close to the large city Malmö. His wife Mona has left him and he has since had a difficult relationship with his rebellious only child, Linda. Wallander also has a difficult relationship with his father, an artist who thousands of times just paints the same landscape for money, and who disapproves of the career choice of his son. Inspector Wallander drinks too much, consumes junk food, doesn’t take exercise and struggles with his anger. He is always very much emotionally involved in the crimes he investigates. Over the years he becomes disillusioned with his work, not in the least because of office politics and the censure by colleagues and bosses of his brusque manner and aggressive tactics. Faceless Killers is the first volume of the 11-book series in which Wallander’s career and life are followed trough time - and it is a strong start. An elderly farm couple is brutally murdered with as only clue the word “foreign” - Wallander must find the killers before anger towards immigrants boils over... Later Wallander novels would become more sprawling, but this first one has an admirable conciseness.

54. MATSUMOTO, Seicho: Points and Lines (1958, Japan)

That the double suicide of a young couple on a secluded beach in Kyushu is not what it seems, comes to light thanks to the painstakingly gathering of evidence by two police officers. This detective novel was in three ways innovative: instead of the unrealistic mysteries by Yokomizo Seishi and others, this was a realistic police procedural; it was a “social mystery,” i.e. the background of the crime was formed by social injustice and corruption (Matsumoto singlehandedly created this sub-genre which would have countless followers) and thirdly, it was also a “railway travel mystery,” another important genre created by Matsumoto. Trains are a popular form of transport in Japan, more so perhaps then in other countries. The late 1950s were a time when Japan was getting on its feet again and people were starting to make holiday trips by rail. In Points and Lines, not only do the detectives travel a lot by train in the course of their job, the solution of the crime lies in a trick with the time table (by the way, something only possible in a country like Japan where all trains run exactly on time!).
 

55. McBAIN, Ed: King’s Ransom (1959, USA)

King's Ransom is one of the so-called “87th Precinct” police procedurals by Ed McBain (pseudonym of Evan Hunter). Note that McBain uses fictional names: New York is called "Isola" in his books, which is also the name for the largest district in the city, comparable to real-life Manhattan.

Shoe magnate Douglas King is told that his son has been kidnapped. An outrageous ransom of half a million dollars is demanded, an amount that will surely ruin the large deal the businessman is about to conclude. Then the son is discovered unhurt at home - by mistake the kidnappers have taken the son of the chauffeur. But the ransom remains the same and King faces a moral dilemma: shall he still pay the bank-breaking ransom, even now that it does not concern his own son anymore? What should he do, throw away his future or sacrifice someone else’s child? To him the answer is cynically clear. Detective Steve Carella of the 87th Precinct can only keep trying to find the kidnappers, and hope that Doug King will decide to give them the payoff. Because if he doesn’t, Carella will have a case of cold-blooded murder on his hands. In Carella's view, the capitalist stands several rungs below the kidnappers on the evolutionary scale. The reason I was interested in this novel, was the 1963 Japanese film High and Low, directed by Akira Kurosawa, which was loosely based on this novel (actually, I like the film better than the novel).

56. McCOY, Horace: They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1935, USA)

One of the saddest stories I know. Dance marathons were long and grueling events in which people danced or walked to music for an extended period of time – as long as several weeks. Contestants danced for an hour and fifty minutes, then received only a ten-minute break during which they had to eat, use the toilet and sleep. These dance contests started in the U.S. in the 1920s and developed into entertainment events during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Also known as endurance contests, dance marathons attracted people to compete as a way to achieve fame or win monetary prizes. In fact, author Horace McCoy was a bouncer at several such marathons, so he was an insider.

Robert Syverten is being sentenced for the murder of Gloria Beatty. He confesses that he killed her and begs mercy from the court. We then are told their story, how they met by chance, two young people unsuccessful in breaking into Hollywood as extras. Gloria talks Robert into participating in a dance marathon contest, which may be a way to get noticed by studio producers or movie stars. Together with 144 other desperate, jobless couples, Gloria and Robert enter the contest, which is held at a large amusement pier on the beach in Santa Monica. From the start, the bitter Gloria tells Robert that she wishes she were dead, but does not have the courage to kill herself. The dance contest is described in full, terrible detail – making the exhaustion the dancers feel palpable for readers. The marathon dance is an attempt at money-making voyeurism, complete with corporate sponsorships, manipulation of "reality", staged couplings, celebrity appearances, and an attempt to rake in cash from an audience that doesn't have much. McCoy gets to the very core of human desperation and misery, a cutthroat atmosphere where people will do anything just to survive... When they stand outside again after 5 weeks, with only 50 dollars earned for all their trouble, Gloria who has developed heart trouble begs Robert to kill her and hands him a small pistol.

McCoy's novel, the best example of absurdist existentialism in American fiction, was more popular abroad than in America when it was published at the height of the depression – it was praised in existentialist circles of France. This is a novel which fits better to (realistic) European than (falsely positive) American culture. And indeed, there couldn't be a more forceful indictment of craziness and superficiality.

57. McDERMID, Val: The Mermaids Singing (Scotland, 1995)

The first novel featuring McDermid’s recurring protagonist, Dr. Tony Hill, a criminal profiler. A serial killer ravages the (fictional) English town of Bradfield in northern England. Men are being abducted and tortured to death using brutal medieval techniques. The bodies are then found in neighborhoods where the town's homosexuals usually meet, and the press quickly dubs the brutal perpetrator the "Queer Killer". Psychologist Tony Hill, who has long argued for psychological profiling of serial killers, can now for the first time put his theories to the test. Hill is an expert on serial killers and how they operate but has never been in the field. He is paired with strong-willed detective Carol Jordan, while they both have to fend off colleagues who believe that psychologists are not needed to find the killer. They also develop complicated romantic feelings for each other. However, Tony Hill has his private demons to contend with as he tries to find out more about a mysterious woman named Angelica who frequently calls him for phone sex (like a mermaid’s song...). As Tony becomes increasingly involved in the investigation, it becomes apparent that the killer is seeking him as the next victim...

McDermid wrote 11 books in the "Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series." This is by far the best of them, a very exciting thriller in which Hill's expertise not only finds the killer, but also saves his own life. Full of gory details, so you'll need a strong stomach.

58. McEWAN, Ian: Nutshell (2016, Britain)

A literary tale of murder and deceit told from the unique perspective of an unborn child, hanging upside-down in his mother's womb with just two weeks to go before he will be born (like a “nut” in a “shell”). The baby's parents are John and Trudy, who live in an old London townhouse. John is a marginally successful poet and runs an equally marginally successful publishing house. But Trudy has an affair with the profoundly banal Claude, the brother of her husband. She has expelled John from the house, claiming that she needs extra rest in the last weeks of pregnancy. Despite the pregnancy, she and her lover are so hot for each other, that they have regular sex - and while they are at it, the poor baby is almost asphyxiated by the heavy shocks he is exposed to. Both plan to kill John, sell the house for a few million pounds, and then live together. Next John disappears, obviously killed by the two lovers, a crime to which the inquisitive, nine-month-old resident of Trudy's womb is witness. The police are on the track of the pair and they decide to flee abroad. Will the unborn child be able to stop them? Can he like Hamlet take revenge for his father? In his monologuing embryo McEwan has constructed a clever and virtuoso voice. A great story with a darkly comic plot, which on the surface is a variant of Shakespeare's Hamlet, as is also indicated by the naming of the two adulterers: Trudy (Gertrude in Hamlet) and Claude (Claudius).

59. McILVANNEY, William: Laidlaw (Scotland, 1977)

Laidlaw is the first in a series of crime books by Scottish author William McIlvanney, featuring the eponymous detective in his attempts to find the brutal sex related murderer of a Glasgow teenager. Laidlaw is known for his unconventional methods in tracking down the killer, and he immerses himself in a 1970s Glasgow full of violence and bigotry. This is a truly hardboiled crime novel, with rude and violent characters, who possess more muscles than brains (in fact, almost nothing of that last substance). I read this novel as if I was being introduced to a wild species, different from homo sapiens...

This novel is considered the first 'Tartan Noir' and is cited as being a source of inspiration for the more sophisticated Rebus novels by Ian Rankin.

60. MILLAR, Margaret, Beast in View (Canada, 1955)

A wealthy young recluse, Helen Clarvoe, receives a creepy phone call from someone who claims to know her and has seen in a crystal ball that an accident will befall her. The stranger on the phone says her name is Evelyn Merrick. Soon after the call ends, Helen trips over a chair in her bedroom, striking her face on a table. Bloody and frightened, she contacts her stock broker and long-time family friend for advice, and she manages to convince Paul Blackshear to play the amateur gumshoe: find this woman, and discover the basis for the call. Blackshear, retired since the death of his wife, is initially reluctant to help but upon seeing Clarvoe's distress agrees to track down Merrick. So he starts an amateur detective investigation which will reveal the dark secrets buried in Helen’s family - and in Helen herself.

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Hyakunin Isshu (One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each): Poem 90 (Inpumon'in no Taiyu)

         Hyakunin Isshu, Poem 90

Translation and comments by Ad Blankestijn
(version September 2022)


let me show it!
the sleeves of the fishermen
of Ojima
though wetter than wet
do not change color like mine

misebaya na
Ojima no ama no
sode dani mo
nure ni zo nureshi
iro wa kawarazu

見せばやな
雄島のあまの
袖だにも
ぬれにぞぬれし
色はかはらず

Inpumon'in no Taiyu 殷富門院大輔 (ca. 1131-1200)

This poem was composed on the topic of "love" at a waka contest. It is an allusive variation (honkadori) and at the same time a rebuttal of a poem by Minamoto no Shigeyuki, which was not included in the Hyakunin Isshu (another poem by him was included, poem 48). Shigeyuki's poem runs as follows:

Matsushima!
only the fishermen
fishing on the shore of Ojima
can have sleeves
as soaked as mine

Matsushima ya | Ojima no iso ni | asari seshi | ama no sode koso | kaku wa nureshika

Matsushima has often been used as a pillow word in waka poetry since the Heian period (794-1185). Minamoto Shigeyuki's poem was probably the first poem written about Matsushima. It is believed he really visited Mutsu Province (the eastern part of the present-day Tohoku Region, including Matsushima), so he may have composed this poem after actually seeing the scenery of Matsushima (generally speaking poets didn't travel a lot outside the capital of Heiankyo and place names were often conceptual, or based on screen paintings).

Notes

- misebaya na: misetai mono desu, "let me show these" - "these" points at the poet's sleeves that have changed color because of her many tears.
- Ojima: "Male Island," one of the larger islands in Matsushima (see below).
- ama no sode dani mo: the sleeves of the fishermen who work at sea and therefore get wet sleeves.

The Poet

Inpumon'in no Taiyu (ca. 1131-1200) was a daughter of Fujiwara no Nobunari and served Princess Ryoshi, the daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa, who was called "Inpumon'in". She was a member of the poetic circle of Shun'e (poem 85) and participated in many waka contests. She has 63 poems in the Senzaishu and other imperial collections; a personal collection is also extant.

[Ojima Island]

Visiting

Matsushima, close to the northern city of Sendai, is one of Japan's Three Famous Views. Matsushima means "Pine Islands," and refers to the hundreds of small islands that lie before the coast. The working of wind and waves has kneaded them into strange shapes, on which viewers can freely exercise their imagination. On all islands pine trees cling to the scarce soil in grotesque poses. Unfortunately, mass tourism and commercialism have spoiled the bay. The large temple compound of Zuiganji is the only quiet place in Matsushima - as well as nearby Ojima Island.

Crossing a vermilion-lacquered bridge, one comes to Oshima Island, where 108 rock caves are said to have existed. Although only about 50 remain today, there are many stone monuments that were once stone pagodas for the dead to pray for their rebirth in the Pure Land, as well as other stone pagodas in the rock caves. Many Buddhist names have been carved in the walls, giving the island the sense of a sacred place. A cave is all that is necessary for Zen, and as a bonus nature provides the view of the island-dotted bay, of rocks and pines molded in fantastic shapes, so beautiful that it rendered even Basho (who visited Matsushima in 1689) speechless - the tradition tells that the great poet was so paralyzed by the scenic grandeur that he could not capture it in a haiku. But this is a place of Zen and in the poet's "no-words" all words are contained.

See the Matsushima Kanko website for more information about Matsushima and how to get there.

References: Pictures of the Heart, The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image by Joshua S. Mostow (University of Hawai'i Press, 1996); One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, by Peter MacMIllan (Penguin Classics); Traditional Japanese Poetry, An Anthology, by Steven D. Carter (Stanford University Press, 1991); Hyakunin Isshu by Inoue Muneo, etc. (Shinchosha, 1990); Genshoku Hyakunin Isshu by Suzuki Hideo, etc. (Buneido, 1997); Chishiki Zero kara no Hyakunin Isshu, by Ariyoshi Tamotsu (Gentosha); Hyakunin Isshu Kaibo Zukan, by Tani Tomoko (X-Knowledge);  Ogura Hyakunin Isshu at Japanese Text Initiative (University of Virginia Library Etext Center); Hyakunin Isshu wo aruku by Shimaoka Shin (Kofusha Shuppan); Hyakunin Isshu, Ocho waka kara chusei waka e by Inoue Muneo (Chikuma Shoin, 2004); Basho's Haiku (2 vols) by Toshiharu Oseko (Maruzen, 1990); The Ise Stories by Joshua S. Mostow and Royall Tyler (University of Hawai'i Press, 2010); Kokin Wakashu, The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry by Helen Craig McCullough (Stanford University Press, 1985); Kokinshu, A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern by Laurel Rasplica Rodd and Mary Catherine Henkenius (University of Tokyo Press, 1984); Kokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1994); Shinkokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1995); Taketori Monogatari-Ise Monogatari-Yamato Monogatari-Heichu Monogatari (Shogakkan, 1994).

    Photo: Wikipedia

    Hyakunin Isshu Index

 

Hyakunin Isshu (One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each): Poem 88 (Kokamon'in no Betto)

        Hyakunin Isshu, Poem 88

Translation and comments by Ad Blankestijn
(version September 2022)


due to one brief night together
short as a cut
of a reed from Naniwa bay
must I exhaust myself like the channel markers
and continue to love you for the rest of my days?

Naniwa e no
ashi no karine no
hitoyo yue
mi o tsukushite ya
koi wataru beki

難波江の
芦のかりねの
一夜ゆへ
身をつくしてや
恋わたるべき

Kokamon'in no Betto 皇嘉門院別当 (late 12th c.)

[Kokamon'in no Betto]

According to the headnote in the Senzaishu, this poem was composed for a waka contest on the topic of "Love: meeting at a travel lodging." The poem is an allusive variation (honkadori) of poem 20 by Motoyoshi. I have tried to bring out the pivot words (kakekotoba) in my translation, which however makes some lines rather long.

Notes

- Naniwa-e: the Bay of Osaka (Osaka was in ancient times called "Naniwa"). As Macmillan mentions, in Teika's time the Inlet of Naniwa was a place famous for meeting pleasure girls.
- karine: pivot word, meaning both "cut root" ("a reed's joint cut at the root") and "temporary sleep." "Temporary sleep" points at lovers sleeping together for one brief night. The reeds of Naniwa are often used as a metaphor for a short time span, as in poem 19 by Lady Ise.
- hito-yo: pivot word, meaning both "one joint/segment (of a reed)" and "one night"
- mi wo tsukushite: pivot word, meaning both "exhausting myself" and "channel marker (for boats in Naniwa Bay)." Channel markers are frequently mentioned in love poetry; as these buoys were made of wood, they decayed quickly in salt water.
- wataru: tsuzukeru, continue. "-beki" indicates conjecture.

The Poet

Kokamon'in no Betto (late 12th c.) was the daughter of Minamoto no Toshitaka. She served as lady-in-waiting to Empress Seishi (1122-11181), the wife of Emperor Sutoku, who after taking the tonsure at the end of her life was known as Kokamon'in. Relatively unknown, she has only 9 poems in the Senzaishu and other imperial anthologies. According to Mostow, Teika probably included this poem by a relatively insignificant poet to echo poem 20 by Motoyoshi.

References: Pictures of the Heart, The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image by Joshua S. Mostow (University of Hawai'i Press, 1996); One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, by Peter MacMIllan (Penguin Classics); Traditional Japanese Poetry, An Anthology, by Steven D. Carter (Stanford University Press, 1991); Hyakunin Isshu by Inoue Muneo, etc. (Shinchosha, 1990); Genshoku Hyakunin Isshu by Suzuki Hideo, etc. (Buneido, 1997); Chishiki Zero kara no Hyakunin Isshu, by Ariyoshi Tamotsu (Gentosha); Hyakunin Isshu Kaibo Zukan, by Tani Tomoko (X-Knowledge);  Ogura Hyakunin Isshu at Japanese Text Initiative (University of Virginia Library Etext Center); Hyakunin Isshu wo aruku by Shimaoka Shin (Kofusha Shuppan); Hyakunin Isshu, Ocho waka kara chusei waka e by Inoue Muneo (Chikuma Shoin, 2004); Basho's Haiku (2 vols) by Toshiharu Oseko (Maruzen, 1990); The Ise Stories by Joshua S. Mostow and Royall Tyler (University of Hawai'i Press, 2010); Kokin Wakashu, The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry by Helen Craig McCullough (Stanford University Press, 1985); Kokinshu, A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern by Laurel Rasplica Rodd and Mary Catherine Henkenius (University of Tokyo Press, 1984); Kokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1994); Shinkokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1995); Taketori Monogatari-Ise Monogatari-Yamato Monogatari-Heichu Monogatari (Shogakkan, 1994).

    Photo: Wikipedia

    Hyakunin Isshu Index

 

Hyakunin Isshu (One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each): Poem 86 (Saigyo)

       Hyakunin Isshu, Poem 86

Translation and comments by Ad Blankestijn
(version September 2022)


should I blame the moon
for making me dwell on things
as if commanding me to lament?
yet still the tears flow down
my reproachful face!

nageke tote
tsuki ya wa mono o
omowasuru
kakochi gao naru
waga namida kana

なげけとて
月やは物を
思はする
かこちがほなる
わがなみだかな

Saigyo 西行 (1118- 1190)

[Saigyo]

"Is it the moon that is causing me to be lost in thought, as if commanding me "Lament!" - No, that cannot be; and yet, as I gaze at the moon, my tears flow down just as if it were the moon's fault."

This is often read as a love poem, written in the persona of the resentful lover, but Saigyo was a deeply Buddhist poet, and I think it is best to interpret this poem as a philosophical complaint, or a general meditation on the human condition. Of course it is also possible to read the poem in a double sense, in which the moon is just as beautiful and out of reach as the beloved. In Buddhist poetry, the moon often is a symbol of enlightenment.

Notes

- tote: to itte
- ya wa: antonym, an expression which say the opposite of what the poet means
- kakochi: kakotsukeru, use something as a pretext

The Poet

Saigyo (1118-1190, real name Sato Norikiyo), was a Japanese poet and Buddhist monk. He was born in Kyoto to a wealthy family who had served the imperial court for generations. At the age of 23 he gave up his wife and children, went to Saga and became a monk of the Buddhist Shingon school. The status of a monk enabled him to live a comparatively free wandering life, in the course of which he created a wealth of poetry. He travels took him from the Kansai to Kamakura and northern Japan. But he spent most of his life living as a recluse on Mt Koya (where the head temple of the Shingon school stands) and Yoshino.

Saigyo exerted a great influence on later poets up to Sogi (1421-1502) and Basho (1644-1694). Contemporaries and later generations valued him as the archetype of the wandering poet and poet monk.

See my translations of 10 more poems by Saigyo in the series "Japanese Poetry."

References: Pictures of the Heart, The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image by Joshua S. Mostow (University of Hawai'i Press, 1996); One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, by Peter MacMIllan (Penguin Classics); Traditional Japanese Poetry, An Anthology, by Steven D. Carter (Stanford University Press, 1991); Hyakunin Isshu by Inoue Muneo, etc. (Shinchosha, 1990); Genshoku Hyakunin Isshu by Suzuki Hideo, etc. (Buneido, 1997); Chishiki Zero kara no Hyakunin Isshu, by Ariyoshi Tamotsu (Gentosha); Hyakunin Isshu Kaibo Zukan, by Tani Tomoko (X-Knowledge);  Ogura Hyakunin Isshu at Japanese Text Initiative (University of Virginia Library Etext Center); Hyakunin Isshu wo aruku by Shimaoka Shin (Kofusha Shuppan); Hyakunin Isshu, Ocho waka kara chusei waka e by Inoue Muneo (Chikuma Shoin, 2004); Basho's Haiku (2 vols) by Toshiharu Oseko (Maruzen, 1990); The Ise Stories by Joshua S. Mostow and Royall Tyler (University of Hawai'i Press, 2010); Kokin Wakashu, The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry by Helen Craig McCullough (Stanford University Press, 1985); Kokinshu, A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern by Laurel Rasplica Rodd and Mary Catherine Henkenius (University of Tokyo Press, 1984); Kokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1994); Shinkokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1995); Taketori Monogatari-Ise Monogatari-Yamato Monogatari-Heichu Monogatari (Shogakkan, 1994).

    Photo: Wikipedia

    Hyakunin Isshu Index

 

Hyakunin Isshu (One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each): Poem 85 (Priest Shun'e)

     Hyakunin Isshu, Poem 85


during all the nights
that I spend full of longing
daylight refuses to come
and even the gaps in the shutters
are cruel to me


yo mo sugara
mono omou koro wa
ake yaranu
neya no hima sae
tsurenakarikeri

夜もすがら
物思ふ頃は
明けやらぬ
ねやのひまさへ
つれなかりけり

Priest Shun'e (1113–1191)

[Shun'e]

Written on the set topic of "love," this poem was composed from the point of view of the woman. She complains about her cruel lover, who doesn't show up, and while endlessly waiting, even the first signs of light don't come peeking through the gaps in the shutters (or the door) to end her vigil. 

Notes
- yo mo sugara: the whole night
- mono omou koro wa: the longing for her cold lover. "koro wa" indicates that such a situation continues every night.
- neya no hima sae: "neya" is "bedroom." "hima" is a "gap." Here the gaps in the door or the shutters of the bedroom are meant. "Sae" means:  her lover is cruel, and even the gaps in the shutters are also cruel."
- tsurenakarikeri: "tsurenachi" is "cruel, cold." "-keri" indicates a sigh, a lament.

The Poet
Shun'e Hoshi was the son of Minamoto no Toshiyori (poem 74). He was tutored in waka composition by his father, but after the latter died he took monastic orders in Todaiji. In his residence in Shirakawa in Heiankyo he held poetry meetings and contests. Among his students was Kamo no Chomei, who recorded Shun'e's words in his Mumyosho. Shun'e has 83 poems in the Shikashu and other imperial collections; his personal poetry collection is also extant.

References: Pictures of the Heart, The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image by Joshua S. Mostow (University of Hawai'i Press, 1996); One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, by Peter MacMIllan (Penguin Classics); Traditional Japanese Poetry, An Anthology, by Steven D. Carter (Stanford University Press, 1991); Hyakunin Isshu by Inoue Muneo, etc. (Shinchosha, 1990); Genshoku Hyakunin Isshu by Suzuki Hideo, etc. (Buneido, 1997); Chishiki Zero kara no Hyakunin Isshu, by Ariyoshi Tamotsu (Gentosha); Hyakunin Isshu Kaibo Zukan, by Tani Tomoko (X-Knowledge);  Ogura Hyakunin Isshu at Japanese Text Initiative (University of Virginia Library Etext Center); Hyakunin Isshu wo aruku by Shimaoka Shin (Kofusha Shuppan); Hyakunin Isshu, Ocho waka kara chusei waka e by Inoue Muneo (Chikuma Shoin, 2004); Basho's Haiku (2 vols) by Toshiharu Oseko (Maruzen, 1990); The Ise Stories by Joshua S. Mostow and Royall Tyler (University of Hawai'i Press, 2010); Kokin Wakashu, The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry by Helen Craig McCullough (Stanford University Press, 1985); Kokinshu, A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern by Laurel Rasplica Rodd and Mary Catherine Henkenius (University of Tokyo Press, 1984); Kokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1994); Shinkokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1995); Taketori Monogatari-Ise Monogatari-Yamato Monogatari-Heichu Monogatari (Shogakkan, 1994).

    Photo: Wikipedia

    Hyakunin Isshu Index

Elizabeth Maconchy: String Quartet No. 3

Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994) was a pupil of Ralph Vaughan Williams and wrote in all genres, but it is especially her fine series of thirteen string quartets, which span the years 1932 to 1984, that is regarded as the peak of her musical achievements - they have been called as fine as those by Bartók and Shostakovich. For her biographical note, see my article in the series "Best String Quartets, Part 3 (1926-1945)."

[Elizabeth Maconchy]

Unfortunately, today Maconchy's music is severely and shamefully under-represented on CD and streaming. I have selected her one-movement Third String Quartet from 1938. As I wrote in my previous article: "There is a sturdy string sound, with especially powerful lower strings (Maconchy herself was a viola player). The music is slow and questioning, followed by an aggressive, rhythmic faster section, before again returning to the opening. Maconchy's compelling and original music has been said to be one of "impassioned argument" and that is also very true of this Third Quartet." It is here played by the PuraCorda Ensemble.

P.S. Also see this interesting article "‘The Impassioned Pursuit Of An Idea’: Elizabeth Maconchy And The String Quartet" on the musical blog Corymbus by Simon Brackenborough.





Also the First Quartet, completed in 1933 when Maconchy was twenty-six, is available via Youtube - note that even in this early work the sound world is already quintessential Maconchy. It is here played by the Bloomsbury Quartet.

Reading The Tale of Genji (27): Cresset Fires (Kagaribi)

Kagaribi

Title

"Kagaribi" means "cresset," a fire built in an iron basket and used for a watchfire, a fishing fire, or simply outdoor illumination. Waley and Seidensticker opt for "(The) Flares," but that is more a type of pyrotechnic that produces a brief bright light used for distress signaling. Tyler has "The Cressets," and Washburn "Cresset Fires," which both are correct.  Elsewhere I have also found "Fire Baskets."

Genji uses the word "cresset fire" in a poem he gives to Tamakazura, employing it as a metaphor for the smouldering passion he feels for his adopted daughter.

Chronology

This chapter follows directly on "Wild Pinks," and takes place in the seventh month of the year when Genji is 36 years old. In the lunar calendar the seventh month was regarded as the first month of autumn.

Position in the Genji

Kagaribi continues Genji's wooing of his adopted daughter Tamakazura during a scene in early autumn when he is teaching her to play the koto. Later Yugiri and Kashiwagi join the music making. Kashiwagi is attracted to Tamakazura, without knowing that she is in fact his half-sister.

[Kagaribi, by Tosa Mitsunobu, Harvard Art Museums]

Synopsis

Recently, rumors about Omi no Kimi, a newly-found daughter of To no Chujo, who is making a laughingstock of herself, have been spreading. Tamakazura also hears such gossip, and begins to appreciate the care Genji has given her despite the fact that she is not his real daughter (and that he keeps bothering her with his attentions).

One night in early autumn, Genji again visits Tamakazura's wing of the northeast residence with its beautiful garden, as he all-too often does. He is aware that a man of his age and stature can't pursue a sexual relationship with his adopted daughter, but his pent up feelings leave him no rest. Genji has just ordered his servants to relight the cresset fires in Tamakazura's garden so that it is bathed in a beautiful light. He has come to teach her the koto, but stays very close beside her, their heads resting on the koto as on a pillow. It is a very intimate scene. Though he makes no actual overtures, he expresses his painful feelings of love in a poem to her. Tamakazura can not help feeling troubled.

Just at that moment, Genji hears music being played in concert by Yugiri, Kashiwagi and others in the east wing. He invites them to come to Tamakazura's veranda and play music together. Kashiwagi plays with remarkable skill. Perversely, Genji hastens the infatuation Kashiwagi feels for his half sister - a relationship about which Kashiwagi has still been left in the dark. 

Genji-e

Illustrations chosen for this chapter include: the intimate scene of Genji lying down with Tamakazura with their heads on the koto - we see the garden lit by a cresset fire underneath a spindle tree that arches over a brook (as above); or slightly later in the same place with Yugiri, Kashiwagi, and his brother, who have joined them for a concert.

Reading The Tale of Genji

 

Reading the Tale of Genji (26): Wild Pinks (Tokonatsu)

Tokonatsu

Title

"Tokonatsu," literally "ever lasting summer," is an old name for the late summer / autumn flower "nadeshiko," often rendered as "wild pinks." Because mother and daughter have become one object of love for him, Genji refers to Tamakazura as "nadeshiko" and to Yugao is "tokonatsu." The title is based on a poem by Genji.

Waley translates "A Bed of Carnations," Seidensticker "Wild Carnation." Tyler has "The Pink," Wasburn "The Wild Pinks."

Chronology

This chapter directly follows the previous one, covering the 6th month.

Position in the Genji

The fifth chapter in the Tamakazura series, about the problems arising from the introduction into the household of an illegitimate, long-lost daughter, as To no Chujo, Genji's old friend and rival, has done.

[Tokonatsu, by Tosa Mitsunobu, Harvard Art Museums]

Synopsis

To no Chujo has been looking for Tamakazura, but instead has found Omi no Kimi - he has been such a hyperactive lover, that he has many illegitimate children, often unknown to him, so wherever he searches, one will pop up. The daughter he has found and taken into his residence is coarse and ill-bred, and a total contrast to the beautiful and elegant Tamakazura.

On a hot summer day, Genji and his son Yugiri are trying to escape the heat by having a picnic at the Tsuridono (fishing pavilion) in the lake of the Rokujo-in estate. When To no Chujo's sons come to call, Genji indulges in some sarcastic observations about Omi no Kimi, also because he is irritated by the opposition of To no Chujo to a match between Yugiri and Kumoi no Kari.

That evening, Genji takes the young noblemen to Tamakazura's wing, and she overhears their conversation. She is distressed to find that Genji and To no Chujo are not on good terms, worrying whether she can ever meet her real father. Later, while instructing her in the art of the six-stringed koto, Genji speaks about her dead mother Yugao and promises to let her meet her real father, To no Chujo, one day. All the same, Genji himself is becoming more and more attracted to her, although he hopes to marry her either to Prince Hotaru or General Higekuro, her two most enthusiastic suitors. 

Meanwhile, To no Chujo is angry when he hears from his sons about the cynical remark that Genji has made. He is piqued at Genji's failure to give in and come to him first, and scolds Kumoi no Kari.

At the same time, he is at a loss what to do with Omi no Kimi, the lost daughter he has taken so much trouble to find, but who in her uncouth ways is not at all like a princess. He decides to make her a lady-in-waiting to his oldest daughter, Kokiden no Nyogo, the Emperor's junior consort, to learn good manners, but a letter and a waka poem she sends to Kokiden are so nonsensical that all the court ladies snigger in contempt. Murasaki Shikibu is clearly using the country bumpkin for cheap laughs.

Genji-e

Scenes chosen for illustration tend to focus on the elegant sub-plots: Genji and other courtiers having a picnic in the fishing pavilion on a hot summer day and enjoying trout and ayu sweetfish (as in the Tosa Mitsunobu painting above); or Genji teaching Tamakazura to play the koto (Japanese zither) in autumn, when wild carnations bloom in the garden (JAANUS).

Reading The Tale of Genji

 

Reading The Tale of Genji (25): Fireflies (Hotaru)

Hotaru

Title

Waley has "The Glow-Worm", but all other translators have "(The) Fireflies."

Chronology

The previous chapter, "Butterflies," ends in the fourth month, and "The Fireflies" goes on to cover the fifth.

Position in the Genji

In this chapter Genji gives one of Tamakazura's suitors, his brother Hyobukyo no Miya (His Highness of War) a glimpse of her by the light of fireflies.

[Hotaru, by Tosa Mitsunobu, Harvard Art Museums]

Synopsis

Around the time of the early summer rains, a letter arrives for Tamakazura from Hyobukyo no Miya, so Genji has her write a reply. Wanting to escape from Genji,  Tamakazura finds Hyobukyo no Miya increasingly attractive. When he visits her one evening, Genji releases a bagful of fireflies behind the screen separating her from his half-brother, softly illuminating her silhouette and providing a glimpse of her face. Hyobukyo no Miya is deeply attracted to her beauty, which is greater than he had expected, so he sends a waka poem to express his love to her. (Due to this episode, Hyobukyo no Miya came to be nicknamed "Hotaru no miya," Prince Hotaru). The motif of setting loose fireflies so that they shine their light on a woman has been derived from Episode 39 of the Ise Monogatari (The Tales of Ise).

Meanwhile, Genji's own attraction to Tamakazura keeps tormenting him - and he keeps tormenting her with his unending wooing.

At a festival on the fifth day of the fifth month, many decorative paper balls are sent to Tamakazura. Genji holds horseback archery events and banquets at the Natsu no Machi section of the palace and spends the night at Hanachirusato's.

Before long, the rainy season arrives, and the Rokujo ladies alleviate their boredom by reading romantic tales. Raised in the country, where no such tales were available, Tamakazura reads them with avid curiosity. Genji gives critiques of the tales that Tamakazura is absorbed in, holding a famous discussion with her on the nature of fiction. He argues that it is fiction, rather than history, that is the more true to life (we hear Murasaki Shikibu's opinion here!).

Around that time, Tamakazura's real father, To no Chujo, is told by a dream diviner that his daughter by Yugao has been adopted by someone else. Never imagining that she is living with Genji, he sets out to look for her.

Genji-e

In the painting by Tosa Mitsunobu above horseback archery is depicted.

Reading The Tale of Genji

 

Hyakunin Isshu (One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each): Poem 84 (Fujiwara no Kiyosuke)

      Hyakunin Isshu, Poem 84


if I live longer
shall I again
yearn for the present time?
the world I once regarded as bitter
now is dear to me!

nagaraeba
mata konogoro ya
shinobaremu
ushi to mishi yo zo
ima wa koishiki

ながらへば
またこの頃や
しのばれむ
憂しと見し世ぞ
今は恋しき

Fujiwara no Kiyosuke (1104- 1177)

"If it is true that time heals all wounds, the poet may even look back with equanimity at the troubled times of today." Kiyosuke could be writing about the disappointments in his own life, such as the failure to have the Shoku Shikashu recognized as an official collection. Other commentators mention the general decline of the world, or the political disturbances of the Hogen era. It seems that he bases himself on a poem by Bai Juyi.

Notes
-nagaraeba: moshi ikinagaraete ita naraba
- "ya" indicates a light doubt; "mu" indicates a presumption. "ima ga natsukashiku omoiokosareru koto daro ka."
- ushi to mise yo: tsurai to omotte ita kakko

The Poet
Fujiwara no Kiyosuke (1104- 1177) was the second son of Akisuke (poem 79), from whom he inherited the leadership of the Rokujo school of poetry. He compiled the Shoku Shikashu for Emperor Nijo, but as his sponsor died before it was completed, it was prevented from becoming an official imperial anthology. He was one of the first to apply rules of choosing themes, participants and judges in the uta-awase poetry gatherings. His standards of judging poetry, made him a rival of Fujiwara no Shunzei. Kiyosuke has 94 poems in the Senzaishu and later imperial collections; a personal collection is also extant.

References: Pictures of the Heart, The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image by Joshua S. Mostow (University of Hawai'i Press, 1996); One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, by Peter MacMIllan (Penguin Classics); Traditional Japanese Poetry, An Anthology, by Steven D. Carter (Stanford University Press, 1991); Hyakunin Isshu by Inoue Muneo, etc. (Shinchosha, 1990); Genshoku Hyakunin Isshu by Suzuki Hideo, etc. (Buneido, 1997); Chishiki Zero kara no Hyakunin Isshu, by Ariyoshi Tamotsu (Gentosha); Hyakunin Isshu Kaibo Zukan, by Tani Tomoko (X-Knowledge);  Ogura Hyakunin Isshu at Japanese Text Initiative (University of Virginia Library Etext Center); Hyakunin Isshu wo aruku by Shimaoka Shin (Kofusha Shuppan); Hyakunin Isshu, Ocho waka kara chusei waka e by Inoue Muneo (Chikuma Shoin, 2004); Basho's Haiku (2 vols) by Toshiharu Oseko (Maruzen, 1990); The Ise Stories by Joshua S. Mostow and Royall Tyler (University of Hawai'i Press, 2010); Kokin Wakashu, The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry by Helen Craig McCullough (Stanford University Press, 1985); Kokinshu, A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern by Laurel Rasplica Rodd and Mary Catherine Henkenius (University of Tokyo Press, 1984); Kokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1994); Shinkokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1995); Taketori Monogatari-Ise Monogatari-Yamato Monogatari-Heichu Monogatari (Shogakkan, 1994).

    Photo: Wikipedia

    Hyakunin Isshu Index

 

Johanna Müller-Hermann: String Quintet Op. 7

Johanna Müller-Hermann (1868–1941) was an Austrian composer. The daughter of a high-ranking civil servant, she received music lessons at an early age, but in accordance with the circumstances of the time, she was not able to pursue her musical ambitions any further, but graduated from a teacher training college and taught for several years at a Viennese elementary school.

With her marriage in 1893 to Otto Müller-Martini, she was no longer required to work and could continue her musical studies - which she did with a vengeance. Her teachers included Alexander Zemlinsky, Josef Bohuslav Foerster, and Franz Schmidt. Her Opus 1, Seven Songs, was printed in 1895. Public performances of her works took place at the Vienna Musikverein and at women's composition evenings. In 1918 Johanna Müller-Herrmann succeeded her teacher Joseph Bohuslav Foerster as professor of music theory at the New Vienna Conservatory.

[Image from Dutch-language Wikipedia]

She left behind an extensive body of work: songs, chamber music, large-scale works for solos, choir and orchestra, mostly on a literary and programmatic basis. After her death, Wilhelm Furtwängler, among others, championed the preservation of her work. She was one of the foremost European female composers of orchestral and chamber music in her day. Despite her contemporary fame, not much has been written about her, which may be due to Nazi ideology, as well as the general destruction of the Second World War. Johanna Müller-Hermann’s works deserve a much wider hearing, not only because of their intrinsic quality, but also because they were an integral part of the Vienna’s extraordinary creative flowering.

The String Quintet has the following movements: (1) Allegro moderato ma energico, (2) Allegro Vivace, (3) Adagio con espressione and (4) Introduzione Adagio–Allegretto grazioso. It is played by Pawel Zalejski, Violin; SongHa Choi, Violin; Klaus Christa, Viola; Danusha Waskiewicz, Viola, and Kajana Pačko, Violoncello.

Ruth Crawford Seeger: String Quartet

The American modernist composer Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953) and her string quartet have already been introduced in my series article "Best String Quartets, Part 4 (1926-1945)", so I will link to that for her biographical note. In the period 1924-32, she wrote a number of ultramodern works, of which the String Quartet is the most important. I quote from my previous article: "A masterpiece that is one of the finest avant garde works in the genre, written by Crawford in Berlin during her Guggenheim Fellowship-year. It consists of four untitled movements, lasting in total only 12 minutes - but it is just as concentrated and advanced as the music for string quartet by Anton Webern (see Best String Quartets, Part 3). The first movement is a twelve-tone study full of wide, arching intervals and haunting melodies. The second movement is canonic, the lines of music linked from one instrument to another form a chain. The third movement is a study in "dissonant dynamics" (also called "sound mass composition") in which each instrument has its own rise and fall in loudness on different held notes. The finale features a free first violin, which is contrasted with unison or doubled answers from the other strings. Crawford Seeger wrote music in which many things happen simultaneously, on every level, but she exercised strict control over all aspects of the music. This brief string quartet sounds like nothing that came before it."

Here played by the Playground Ensemble (Sarah Johnson and Anna Morris, Violins; Donald Schumacher, viola; Richard von Foerster, cello).

Part 1 & 2:

Part 3 & 4:

Grazyna Bacewicz: String Quartet No. 4

Grażyna Bacewicz (1909–1969) played a leading role in making Polish music an integrated part of the contemporary European music scene - like Lutosławski, Gorecki and Penderecki (in whose shadow she stood for too long, before now finally being recognized). Following in the footsteps of Szymanowski, her works convey a striking emotional directness by combining elements of native Polish folksong with a modernist style.

After graduating from Warsaw conservatory in 1932, Bacewicz went to Paris where she studied with the redoubtable Nadia Boulanger in a cosmopolitan atmosphere - she would return two more times to France. In Poland, she concentrated on playing and composing and became concert master in the newly formed Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. She continued composing during the difficult war years (Second String Quartet, First Symphony and the popular Overture for orchestra). For the first decade after the war, the political and cultural situation in her homeland imposed limits on her activities - her works written from 1945 to 1955 were in a “neo-classical” style, but from 1956 on, when there was more freedom, her style could evolve in a more contemporary direction. Bacewicz continually looked for ways to develop her style, while maintaining her dedication to form, logic and expression..

The string quartet No 4 dates from 1951 and is one of the composer's most performed works. It realizes a perfect balance between formal complexity, harmonic sophistication and approachable melodies. The quartet has the following movements: (1) Andante - Allegro moderato, (2) Andante and (3) Allegro giocoso. Played by the Szymanowski Quartet.  

P.S. Also read my note about Bacewicz Third Quartet, in the series "Best String Quartets, Part Five (Postwar period)."

Emilie Mayer: Piano Concerto

Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) is a rare example of a 19th c. woman composer who was celebrated and successful in her own time. She composed several symphonies and concert overtures in addition to chamber music and songs. Her works are stylistically influenced by Viennese Classicism and Beethoven, although she increasingly found her own tonal language. In the 1860s she composed mainly chamber music; early Romantic echoes are particularly evident in her violin sonatas. Emilie Mayer is one of the most important woman composers of the 19th century.

From 1841 to 1847 Emilie Mayer studied with Carl Loewe in Stettin. During this time, she wrote some of her first compositions, such as the symphonies in C and E minor and several chamber music works. On Carl Loewe's recommendation, from 1847 she completed further musical studies in Berlin with Adolf Bernhard Marx. She then went on concert tours to Vienna, Halle, Hamburg and Stettin. In Berlin, she wrote further chamber music works and symphonies, as well as the Faust Overture, which were performed in numerous cities.

Emilie Mayer remained unmarried. She kept her own open house in Berlin and maintained contacts with important figures in social and aristocratic life. She was one of the best known and most productive female composers of the Romantic period, as is shown by her large output: eight symphonies, twelve string quartets, piano chamber music, fifteen concert overtures, violin and cello sonatas, piano works, a Singspiel, songs, and four-part choruses. Even so, her own catalog of works has not survived, and numerous compositions must be considered lost. Emilie Mayer's compositions were largely forgotten after her death and were only rediscovered by researchers from the mid-1980s onward.

Mayer’s Piano Concerto in B is a well-crafted three-movement work full of solid classical writing (many echoes from Mozart), but also some progressive harmonic language, as well as a highly virtuosic solo piano part. It appeared around 1850.

The concerto is here played by the FSOA (Female Symphonic Orchestra Austria), conducted by Silvia Spinnato and with Heghine Rapyan as solist.

Florence Price: Concerto in One Movement for Piano and Orchestra

Florence Price was the first female African-American composer to earn a national reputation, and to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra. In recent years she has come to be recognized as a significant American composer of the 1930s and 1940s. Her late-Romantic style is infused with echoes of her experience in popular music, and her African-American heritage. In addition to 100 songs – her best-known works – her catalogue of music includes orchestral and choral pieces, and music for piano, organ and chamber ensembles. Orchestral works include four symphonies, concertos for violin and piano, and a variety of overtures, tone poems, suites and dance pieces.

One of my favorite works by Price is the Piano Concerto in One Movement, which was premiered in Chicago in 1934 with Price herself as the soloist. There are three distinct sections played without a break. The first part is characterized by an urgent and lyrical theme; the slow-tempo central part is tender and nostalgic; and the concerto concludes with a sprightly example of a juba, a folk dance often used by Florence Price, a sort of proto-rag. It is striking how much this concerto says in its  short span, moving from storm to carefree summer idyll to ecstatic joy in well under 20 minutes.

The Texas Medical Center Orchestra conducted by Libi Lebel performs the Concerto in One Movement by Florence B. Price. Piano soloist is Lulu Liu.

Reading The Tale of Genji (24): Butterflies (Kocho)

Kocho

Title

The chapter title comes from an exchange of poems between Murasaki and Akikonomu. All translators have "(The) Butterflies."

Chronology

The story takes place during the period from spring to summer when Genji is 36 years old.

Position in the Genji

In March, when Empress Akikonomu returns to the Rokujo-in estate on a short leave, the people in the estate enjoy boating, and after that various events are held. Tamakazura is so attractive that even Genji confesses his love for her.

[Kocho, by Tosa Mitsunobu, Harvard Art Museums]

Synopsis

Around March 20, when the cherry blossoms and purple wisteria are at their height, Genji holds a concert performed on board boats on the vast lake that connects the spring quarters of Murasaki to the autumn quarters of Akikonomu. He also invites the ladies-in waiting of Empress Akikonomu - the women act as substitutes for the Empress, who is too exalted to come in person to merely view a garden. The prow of each boat has been carved in the shape of a different mythical animal. At night music and feasting goes on, and court nobles and imperial princes join in the festivities. Among them is Hyobukyo no Miya (Genji's younger half-brother), one of the suitors for Tamakazura, and he eagerly pleads with Genji to allow him to marry her.

The next day, there is a reading of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra (Hannyakyo, Prajnaparamita sutra) sponsored by Empress Akikonomu at the autumn wing, and the court nobles who have enjoyed the concert on boats also participate. Lady Murasaki sends young girls gorgeously dressed in butterfly costumes to deliver flowers for the memorial service, and exchanges waka poems with the empress. Genji's estate is presented as an equivalent of paradise, or of the Horai islands of the immortals.

Summer arrives, and letters from suitors such as Hyobukyo no Miya, Higekuro (The Commander of the Right) and Kashiwagi (son of To no Chujo, who is ignorant of the fact that Tamakazura is in fact his elder half-sister) come one after another to Tamakazura, who is growing more elegant and lovely with the day. Although Tamakazura trusts him as a parent, Genji begins to find himself attracted to her as well.

When reading and rating the letters, Genji can not control his attachment to Tamakazura, and one moonlit evening after a rainfall, he finally confesses his longing for her and lies down beside her. In the end he is able to restrain himself and nothing more happens, but Tamakazura is surprised and perplexed, experiencing the first of many days of worry. She doesn't know how to deal with these romantic feelings from her adopted father. The sexual aggression of Genji towards Tamakazura, made all the more perverse by their pretended father-daughter relation, is a severe blot on the paradise at the Rokujo Estate.

Genji-e

Paintings based on this chapter are characterized by dragon and phoenix boats on a garden pond and little girls dancing, dressed as butterflies, holding cherry blossoms and yellow yamabuki roses (JAANUS). In the above illustration, the pond is seen from the point-of-view of Murasaki's pavilion.

Reading The Tale of Genji

 

Best Crime Novels (5): Philip Kerr, Vaseem Khan, Natsuo Kirino, Herman Koch, Tim Krabbe, Volker Kutscher, Camilla Lackberg, Stieg Larsson, Pierre Lemaitre, and Alexander Lernet-Holenia.

In this installment novels from Britain (2), Japan, the Netherlands (2), Germany, France, Sweden (2) and Austria by the following authors: Philip Kerr, Vaseem Khan, Natsuo Kirino, Herman Koch, Tim Krabbe, Volker Kutscher, Camilla Lackberg, Stieg Larsson, Pierre Lemaitre, and Alexander Lernet-Holenia. 

41. KERR, Philip: March Violets (1989, Britain)

Former police inspector, now private investigator, Bernie Gunther is an outspoken anti-Nazi, but still manages to survive in the darkening mood of Germany in the 1930s. A mysterious late-night summons takes him to the palatial home of Hermann Six, one of the country’s wealthiest and most powerful industrialists. There he learns that Six’s daughter, Grete, and her husband have been murdered in their bed and the safe in their home burglarized. Six is intent on recovering an expensive diamond necklace without calling in the police and offers Bernie a large fee. But the case is far more complicated than Herr Six has explained. First, it becomes clear that the police cannot solve the murder. Then several troubling characters in the drama come to Bernie’s attention, such as a gorgeous film star who is Six's mistress, Six’s  private secretary who seems crooked, a pair of thuggish Gestapo detectives, and even Hermann Goering himself. As the investigation unfolds, the complications multiply and threats to Bernie’s life emerge again and again. Philip Kerr has done his research and this detective novel is also an excellent piece of historical fiction – like the novels by Volker Kutscher set in the same era. A vivid snapshot of Berlin under the Nazis, kicking off the trilogy “Berlin Noir.” In all, Kerr wrote 14 historical thrillers featuring Bernie Gunther, set in Germany during the 1930s, the Second World War and the Cold War.

42. KHAN, Vaseem: Midnight at Malabar House (2020, Britain)

Vaseem Khan is in the first place known for his series of humorous crime novels set in India featuring retired Mumbai police Inspector Ashwin Chopra and his sidekick, a baby elephant named Ganesha. But recently he has struck out in another direction with Midnight at Malabar House, a police procedural introducing India’s first female police detective, Persis Wadia (several decades before one was actually appointed!). The story is set in Bombay. Starting at New Year’s Eve 1949, just after Indian Independence, the horrors of the Partition with Pakistan and the assassination of Gandhi. Social and political turmoil is rife in the country. Yet Bombay remains cosmopolitan, with thousands of British still left in the city. Wadia is stationed at Malabar House, the city’s most unwanted unit of police officers, where as the only woman on the force she has been sidelined and consigned to the midnight shift. Then she receives a phone call: prominent British diplomat James Herriot has been murdered in his room and his trousers are missing... In this way, India’s most sensational case falls in her lap. As 1950 dawns and India prepares to become the world’s largest republic, accompanied by Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch, she sets out to investigate a case that becomes more political all the time. Wadia is a real character with an interesting personal story which is gradually fleshed out. The only woman among male colleagues and bosses who tell her that she does not deserve to be among them, she is plagued with doubt, but is also strong enough to continue doing what she thinks is right. An interesting story in a fascinating and unusual setting.

 

43. KIRINO, Natsuo: OUT (1997, Japan)

Four housewives have to work night shifts in a company filling lunch boxes to make both ends meet. Masako, the leader of the four women, is alienated from her shoplifting husband and teenage son, a hikikomori. Plump and vain shopaholic Kuniko has been ditched by her boyfriend after the couple were driven into debt, leaving Kuniko to fend off a loan shark. Yoshie is a single mother and caretaker of her aged and paralyzed mother-in-law. Yayoi is a 34-year-old mother of two small boys; all three suffer abuse from her drunken, gambling husband Kenji. One night Kenji gambles away the family savings and gets into an argument with Yayoi about Anna, a hostess he is stalking. When he starts hitting Yayoi, she snaps and strangles him with his belt. Yayoi then beseeches Masako and her other friends to help her dispose of Kenji's body. The body is professionally dismembered, put into garbage bags, and thrown away in various spots all over Tokyo. But it isn't long before one carelessly hidden bag is discovered and the police begin to ask questions. And as if things weren't bad enough, the women begin to blackmail each other, Kuniko's loan shark starts pursuing them and a gangster (who is suspected of the murder) begins to hunt the women down... A show window of the social problems that have beset Japan in the new millennium. Readers were shocked that a woman writer in her mid-forties would have the idea for such a crime, which led to lots of media attention. Natsuo Kirino is a leading figure in the recent boom of female writers of Japanese detective fiction. Most of Kirino's novels center upon women and crime. Typically, Kirino focuses on women who do unimaginable things, which is why books as OUT can be considered as “feminist noir.” She writes in a convincing, realistic style, putting us inside the skins of these women. Several of her other novels (such as also Grotesque and Real World) have also been translated into English.
 

 

44. KOCH, Herman: The Dinner (2009, The Netherlands)

A novel that reads like a thriller as the unreliable narrator only gradually unveils his secret. Set at a five-course dinner in a posh restaurant (deliciously satirized by Koch), the novel lays bare the violence hidden just under the surface of polite society. Two brothers - one a burned-out teacher, the other a successful politician - have dinner with their wives. The real purpose of the meeting is to discuss what should be done about their sons, who have murdered an elderly homeless person by setting fire to her, something which has been covered up so far (although caught on surveillance camera, their faces are not clear). The politician wants to come clean about the truth, even as that will be the end of his career, but the other couple wants to hide the secret by all means, to keep their so-called “happy family” intact, even if that means another murder. The book demonstrates the danger that the more people think in categories (“immigrants,” “Jews,” “blacks”), the easier it is to hate and destroy others. Koch's characters are usually highly disagreeable, distrusting and violent, and they often defend questionable morals and extreme views. Underlying themes in their narratives include happiness, mediocrity, disgust, the right to live, cynicism, violence, beauty, and the ugly.

The Dinner was translated into 21 languages and sold over one million copies throughout Europe. A Dutch movie of the book was released in 2013 (followed by Italian and English-language adaptations). 

 

45. KRABBE, Tim: Delay (1994, The Netherlands)

Jacques Bekker is on a return trip to the Netherlands from New Zealand when his plane is delayed during a stopover in Sydney. He takes advantage of the unexpected four-hour break by paying a lightning visit to his childhood friend (and first love) Monique Ilegems. He arrives on Monique’s street just as a stylish woman is loading a suitcase into the back of a smart car. As we will learn later on, Monique has committed serious fraud (and is carrying a bag full of cash) and is about to flee. She begs Jacques to help her escape from the police. At first he doesn’t feel like it (and keeps looking at his watch as he has to return to the airport to catch his delayed plane - a tense situation I can really imagine, as I am always afraid of missing planes myself), but eventually gives in and forgets about his journey. Soon, Jacques and Monique will be deep in the Australian Outback, on a wicked journey, which also leads them back to their shared past as teenagers, with fatal consequences. Monique appears more and more in her true form, as a great manipulator. This novel combines a Graham Greene-like travelogue with a haunting thriller. A perfect noir novel, which reminded me of the work of the French author Pascal Garnier.

Tim Krabbe also wrote mystery story The Golden Egg, which was made into an acclaimed Dutch film (1998), as well as a worthless American remake.

46. Kutscher, Volker: Babylon Berlin (2008, Germany)

The first novel in a series about detective superintendent Gereon Rath, set in Berlin in 1929 and the 1930s. The historical novel gives a vivid portrait of the Roaring Twenties and of political developments in the late Weimar Republic, including the rise of National Socialism, although – in contrast to the reader – the implications are not yet apparent to the characters involved. People from contemporary history and historical events, such as the Blutmai riots, are cleverly incorporated in the story.

Cologne inspector Gereon Rath is transferred to Berlin through his father's connections after he shoots the son of an influential newspaper publisher in the line of duty. In Berlin he works at the Alexanderplatz police headquarters, also known as the "Red Castle", initially for the vice squad. His goal, however, is to transfer to the homicide department, which is headed by the well-known detective Ernst Gennat, who works according to the most modern scientific criminological methods and has one of the highest clear-up rates. Rath sees his chance when an unidentified body is recovered from the Landwehr Canal and joins the stagnating homicide investigation without being asked. In his investigation, Rath uncovers a connection to a circle of militant exiled Russians who want to buy weapons with smuggled gold in preparation for a coup. Organized crime and paramilitaries like the SA are also after the gold and weapons. Rath falls in love with Charlotte Ritter, who works as a stenographer in the homicide department, and uses her insider knowledge in his investigation. In the course of his investigations, he also comes across the secret mastermind of the Berolina ring association Johann Marlow, known as Dr. M., and makes himself susceptible to blackmail, not least because he uses cocaine in one of the man’s illegal nightclubs. He becomes more and more entangled in the case and comes under suspicion himself after he accidentally shoots a man and lets the body disappear...

As sequels go, The Silent Death and Goldstein are also quite good, but from The Fatherland Files I gradually lost interest. A good idea milked too long, but the first three novels are very good!

47. Lackberg, Camilla: The Ice Princess

Writer Erica Falck has returned to her family home in the small seaside town of Fjällbacka after her parents died. It is in the middle of winter. While trying to cope with the death of her parents, she is writing a biography of Swedish Nobel prize winning author Selma Lagerlöf. Then a young woman, Erica’s childhood friend Alexandra Wijkner, is found dead in her frozen bathtub. Suicide or murder? Patrik Hedstrøm, a young local police detective, is forced to carry out the investigation behind his superintendent’s back because the boss prefers to sleep at his desk and wait until he can take credit in the media for any success his subordinates manage to achieve. The investigation shows that the young woman's death occurred before she was placed in the tub, allowing the liquid to freeze around her as the temperature dropped far below freezing inside her house. At the prompting of Alex's parents, Erica begins to investigate the death of their daughter, teaming up with Patrik Hedstrøm. They fall in love, but circle cautiously around each other, afraid that the other doesn’t reciprocate their feelings. In some ways, the halting, nervous way that the two protagonists deal with each other is the strongest aspect of this novel. These two, both of them in their late 30s, act like nervous teenagers...  But together they manage to uncover the dark and seamy secrets of the town. As is usual in the genre of Nordic noir, a heavy emphasis is given to characterization and depiction of the small town where the crime occurs.

48. Larsson, Stieg: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005, Sweden)

The Swedish title of this long thriller, the first book of the Millennium series, is “Men who hate women,” and indeed the novel is a bit too righteous – but it is also a striking novel, full of passion. The author’s rather thickly laid-on targets are violence against women, the incompetence and cowardice of investigative journalists, the moral bankruptcy of big capital and the virulent strain of Nazism still festering away in Swedish society. Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on an island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle suspects murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. Both are conflicted, complicated people, idiosyncratic in the extreme, and therefore interesting enough to compensate for the rather mechanical, 19th century plot. They are both believable creations, although Salander is also a bit cartoonish. When the pair link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history; but, the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander will find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves. I don’t like “bestsellers,” but The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has a good story and interesting characters. That is not anymore the case with the second (The Girl Who Played with Fire) and third novel (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest) in the series – the  story goes on too long and looses all realism as Salander becomes a sort “Count of Monte Christo” who via hacking gathers an enormous fortune which helps her in her revenge. I also hesitate to call Larsson's work "Nordic noir," it is too much plot-driven in an old-fashioned way.

49. Lemaitre, Pierre: Alex (2011, France)

No novel is as literally sick-making as super violent revenge thriller “Alex,” driven by a gruesome and grotesque story line - the fierce plot twists will have you reeling. Only for readers with a very strong stomach, as the in detail described murders are really revolting. Although part of a three-book series about Police Commandant Camille Verhoeven, the real protagonist is Alex Prevost, a young woman who is beautiful, resourceful and tough. She has been kidnapped, savagely beaten and imprisoned in a wooden cage in an abandoned warehouse, where her naked body is attacked by hungry rats. It is a wonder she manages to escape, but that is only the moment that the real story starts: that of a terrible revenge. She evolves from the victim of a brutal kidnapping into the prime suspect of a series of murders, and behind that is hidden another tragic story of exploitation in the past. Don't read this book while you are eating or snacking!

 

50. Lernet-Holenia, Alexander: I was Jack Mortimer (1933)

A thriller about a taxi driver in Vienna that imports its criminals from the gangster culture of America – albeit with a twist. The crime novel is told from the perspective of Viennese taxi driver Ferdinand Sponer, who picks up American gangster Jack Mortimer only to find that he has been shot dead when they reach their destination. Sponer panics, disposes of the body in the Danube and starts to investigate the crime, while the police, on finding blood in his taxi, make him their prime suspect. The situation is resolved when an American woman confesses to murdering her husband in revenge for his killing of her lover, a certain Jack Mortimer. A relatively sophisticated crime novel for the period with a strong sense of place, the work provides nuanced psychological portraits of the victim and murderers, as well as the hapless Sponer.

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