Cover It Up

ORIENTAL occultism: deeply intertwined, almost incestuous, love affairs; one women's guilt pain and revenge--these are the promising central elements of Masks a novel best described as a Japanese Harlequin Romance Sadly, Fumiko Enchi fails to deliver on this promise.

The foundation for the story is provided by a series of Oriental myths suggesting that certain women are capable of using psychic power to possess and manipulate people around them. Mieko Togano, Enchi would have us believe is just such a woman Mieko eventually comes to fully possess her daughter-in-law, Yasuko, whom, she uses to enact a bizarre revenge plot, not directed at anyone in particular, but rather at the vague target of past misfortune Throughout the novel, the obvious passion and energy of Mieko are hidden behind a face which reveals no emotion, similar to the masks actresses wore in Japanese No Dramas.

Despite its apparent intrigue, the story is slow-moving and predictable at its best, simply tedious and dull at its worst. The characterization is vapid, and not just because the novel's richness is lost in the translation, Enchi restricts herself to describing the hair and skin color or the banal speculations of minor players in the story, ("Strong? Of course she is, but only on one level...") They seem to have no personality, no motivation for their actions, and only Yasuko, under her mother-in-law's spell, can be believable in such a state. The author fails miserably in her attempts to provide a psychological portrait of her main character, Mieko, primarily because she dwells on events in the woman's past rather than their actual effects on the character herself.

The most engaging aspect of the novel, the concept of masks from the No Dramas as a symbol for the facade individuals erect to hide their true feelings, loses its power and becomes lost in the quagmire of the tedious plot. By the time the sixth different character remarks that Mieko's face is reminiscent of a No mask, the symbol has become merely bothersome, a tool the author uses to justify the fact that no one understands or is aware of what Mieko is plotting.

Fumiko Enchi wrote Masks 25 years ago, but only this year did Knopf publish an English translation. Enchi is described as one of Japan's most important women writers, Masks as her finest work. However, an unlikely plot, combined with a superficial theme and vacuous characterization, make that boast at best difficult to believe.

The publication of Masks in the United States seems to be an attempt to capitalize upon the growing. American interest in Japanese films, art, philosophy and literature Unfortunately, novels such as Masks tend to detract from the quality of some of the truly great Japanese literature which has recently become available in American markets. Leave Masks on the shelf Similar stories are easily found in the grocery store next to copies of the National Enquirer A true interest in Japanese literature will best be served by the novels of Soveki or Mishima.