I wonder how much of it can be attributed to loss in translation, and how much to a different literary style from a different culture? First I must say that I admire Hpulley for learning to read in the original Japanese. Some of my favorite authors, including Ibuse, Tanizaki, and Mishima, are Japanese. I at least have found much similarity in their style of writing and language (translated into English of course, but with differing translators). I really enjoyed not just these stories, but how they were written. I did manage to convince the afternoon and evening book clubs at my local library to read Seven Japanese Tales by Tanizaki a few months ago and most were not only put off by the subject matter, but also disliked the style of writing and how the stories unfolded. “Old fashioned” was one comment I recall about the writing style. I attributed it to the audience being, besides me, all middle age to older women. For instance they all loved Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks (the selection read and discussed this month) . I on the other hand found that book unintentionally hilarious.