Dark Room - Japan's Modern Writers Author:Junnosuke Yoshiyuki He was safe--or so he thought. He had everything: the modest literary reputation, the comfortable income, above all, the women. "Safe" women. Women who were "no trouble." Women whose names might change from time to time, but who were always available. To him, they were a group of bodies to be selected from according to the mood of the moment, wi... more »th varying sexual responses to be savored at leisure and compared.... Sex was a relaxation, a reward for labor, an end in itself; the only taboos were domesticity and emotion. But things arose to disturb the carefully arranged pattern. Ugly little echoes from the past. Disturbing pre-echoes from the future. Bizarre images, arising from the subconscious to suggest that all was not as well as it seemed. The women, too, were forever threatening to develop personalities. Takako, for instance, who had apparently seen with clearer eyes than he'd thought, and suddenly gone off to become a respectable married woman. And Maki, who might or might not be a lesbian, but whose very elusiveness had aroused his unwilling interest. Natsue alone seemed to fulfill all the conditions. Only Natsue was pure flesh untainted by troublesome emotions; only Natsue was entirely and reassuringly undemanding--or so he thought again, until he found himself caught in a relentlessly tightening noose of sensuality and dependence.« less