Finally finished Tanizaki Jun'ichiro's The Makioka Sisters (Sasameyuki)... Can't imagine reading it in Japanese. :p

One of the things about the book I found interesting was the constant psychological guessing and second-guessing Sachiko kept putting herself through. Building all these mental scenarios like a chess game because you can't just go out and ask someone what they really think. Hence the tendency of the narrative to be bogged down in what seem to be mundane details (and why I took so long to finish it), but they do they serve to construct the life of the Makiokas in much colour.

What is most interesting to me is that Sachiko's sisters never seem to be who she thinks they are. They remain inscrutable because so much of the narrative and so many of the opinions are from Sachiko's perspective. So it's up to the reader to infer people's true personalities and motives from their speech and behaviour. Can't take everything at face value.