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In A Lost Paradise, two middle-aged lovers follow their passionate affair to its inevitable conclusion. The lovers, Kuki, 57, unpromoted at his Tokyo publishing company, an aging bon vivant, and Rinko, 37, stuck in a childless and loveless marriage but accomplished at ikebana, follow each other into an accelerating spiral of intimate obsession. Into this predictable plot, though, Watanabe infuses compassion, eroticism and more social observation than often comes up between the sheets.
The novel charts their affair as it progresses, and perhaps also regresses, from daytime assignations at city hotels to overnight stays at beachside inns, to weekends at onsens, to a rented apartment, to leaving their spouses and living together, to Rinko's family's ancient resort house to... well, anyone familiar with the age-old narratives of ostracized lovers can fill in the rest. And if you can't, Watanabe weaves into the lovers' dialogue, a recounting of the tale of Sada Abe, immortalized in the film "In the Realm of the Senses." As the lovers fall more deeply into their relationship, they gradually lose touch with their former lives, and begin to act out a conscious fascination with ensuring "their love will never die."
While based on traditional tales of lovers, the novel does not rely on the sureties of overt moral or social criticism. Watanabe's points are offered obliquely, small packages beautifully wrapped in striking descriptions, left discretely unopened. Much of his style seems informed by a Zen-like simplicity, somewhat "shibui" in style-direct, unadorned, and crisply clear.
"It was some time before he grew aware of Rinko, lying slumped sideways. Yes, he had seen her crumple, hair flying as she cried out -- he couldn't remember the exact words. There was no doubting one thing: both of them had come at exactly the same moment. As he traced his slowly returning memories, Kuki tentatively moved his arms and legs. Everything worked, knees included. No damage done. He gazed at the lantern, and it came back to him: this was a room in a suite looking out on Lake Chuzenji."
Watanabe's approach offers the right degree of distance to the story of two people whose internal confusion becomes an enviable clarity in pursuing sensual pleasure. The juxtaposition of the detailed descriptions of their aging bodies flowing together and the tangled explanations of half-conscious feelings, social anxiety and disoriented self-insight makes the reader enviously sympathetic to what Rinko and Kuki have.
The sex scenes, of course, are a large part of why the novel sold over 3 million copies in Japanese and why the Japanese title "Shitsurakuen" became a code word for middle-aged romance. Their calm, trusting, mature approach to sex is described with remarkable clarity in breathtaking scenes. Cherry blossoms sprinkle in on Rinko's naked body; Kuki satisfies her with a variety of techniques. They make it in kimono, under moonlight, at sunrise and on tatami. Nothing exotic, just beautifully done.
"Sex was a world without progress or regression. Coming from a technologically advanced society did not make modern man any better at it, nor was ancient man necessarily clumsy at it. Everyone learned little by little from their own experiences and sensations, trying out what seemed good to them, alternately pleased and disappointed with the results. Truly it was a world where science and civilization could not intervene, a culture and a wisdom gained anew by each generation as living men and women came together. With this at the back of his mind, Kuki entered the warm wetness of her body."
The fear of coming down from the sexual high becomes frightening, especially to Rinko. The fear of diminishing satisfaction and fading desire eventually determines their final course of action. Perhaps by relying on these inevitable, though highly convincing, universals, A Lost Paradise perhaps fails to be a great, original novel, but by the end, we don't really need it to be. It's a beautiful story, and that's disturbing, engaging, and moving enough.
Reviewed
by Michael Pronko
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