The Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
Published 1948 · 205,538 words · about 14 hours at an average pace · Fiction, Literary Fiction, Family Saga, Historical Fiction
How hard is The Makioka Sisters to read?
The Makioka Sisters scores 52 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 60 out of 100
- The novel employs a refined, literary vocabulary, occasionally introducing Japanese cultural terms like "obi," "samisen," or "miai," which are generally clarified by context. While not laden with archaic or highly specialized jargon, the formal translation style elevates the word choice beyond simple contemporary fiction. Readers will encounter a steady stream of sophisticated words, placing it above the accessible elegance of *The Great Gatsby* but below the encyclopedic demands of *Gravity's Rainbow*.
- Sentence structure: 75 out of 100
- The prose features consistently long, elaborate sentences, frequently employing multiple nested clauses and extensive subordination to convey nuanced details and character thoughts. This "Proustian subordination" demands sustained reader attention, as seen in descriptions of Sachiko's internal monologues or complex family dynamics. While not reaching the extreme lengths of a "Jamesian hypotaxis," the grammatical demands are significantly higher than typical contemporary fiction.
- Abstraction: 55 out of 100
- The narrative remains firmly rooted in the concrete experiences and social interactions of the Makioka family, detailing marriage negotiations, daily life, and personal struggles. While characters engage in internal reflection and subtle emotional subtext, these are directly tied to their immediate circumstances rather than abstract philosophical or theoretical concepts. The focus is on observation and character dynamics, similar to *Remains of the Day*, rather than the overt intellectualism of *Brothers Karamazov*.
- Information density: 78 out of 100
- The narrative is rich with intricate details, interweaving multiple character perspectives, family histories, and ongoing subplots like marriage negotiations, Taeko's artistic career, and Etsuko's health. The text frequently provides extensive background information and cultural context within the flow of current events, demanding continuous attention to track the numerous relationships and motivations. This density is comparable to *2666* in its layered complexity, requiring readers to hold many concepts in mind simultaneously.
- Narrative indirection: 30 out of 100
- The narrative is largely direct, with an omniscient narrator explicitly detailing characters' thoughts, motivations, and social dynamics. Readers are told most of what they need to know, such as Sachiko's understanding of Itani's forwardness or Yukiko's true feelings about her brother-in-law. While characters like Yukiko are often silent, the narrator or other characters usually interpret her meaning for the reader, leaving little to deep inference, placing it closer to '1984' (35) than 'The Great Gatsby' (65).
- Symbolic density: 40 out of 100
- The novel employs clear, recurring motifs such as the cherry blossoms, symbolizing beauty and the transience of youth, and the old Osaka house, representing fading tradition. Yukiko's facial spot and the squeaking obi also function as direct symbols of her marriage difficulties or social discomfort. While these elements enrich the narrative, their meanings are generally explicit or easily inferred, akin to 'To Kill a Mockingbird' (45) rather than 'The Great Gatsby' (75).
- Ironic distance: 50 out of 100
- The novel presents a gentle, pervasive ironic distance, often highlighting the gap between characters' intentions or societal expectations and their actual outcomes. Examples include Sachiko's efforts to appear older for Yukiko's miai being repeatedly insufficient, or the family's elaborate marriage negotiations being thwarted by overlooked details. This irony stems from social commentary on traditional customs and human foibles, rather than a deeply unreliable narrator or biting satire, placing it around 'Brothers Karamazov' (55).
- Resolution withholding: 70 out of 100
- The excerpt consistently withholds definitive resolution, particularly regarding Yukiko's central quest for marriage, with each prospect ending in failure or postponement. The Nomura miai is set, but its outcome and the family's knowledge of his quirks remain unresolved by the excerpt's end. Similarly, Taeko's future and the long-term impact of Tsuruko's move to Tokyo are left open, creating a pervasive sense of ongoing struggle and uncertainty, placing it above 'The Great Gatsby' (60) but below 'Crying of Lot 49' (75).
- Structural complexity: 35 out of 100
- The narrative maintains a largely linear chronology, following the Makioka family's experiences over several years. While the omniscient third-person perspective occasionally shifts focus between sisters or includes clear, integrated flashbacks to past events like the 'newspaper affair,' these shifts are not disorienting. The prose is conventional, and there are no formal experiments or unreliable narrators to complicate the structure, making it comparable to '1984' (35) or 'War and Peace' (40).
How The Makioka Sisters is regarded
The Makioka Sisters holds a literary regard score of 74 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.