Wayfarer

The Wayfarer is one of Soseki's major mature works. It tells the story of Ichiro, his wife Onao, and his brother Jiro, who are involved in a perculiar triangle. Ichiro suffers from his excessively cultivated intellect and introsective sensibility. He has his share of passion toward Onao, but like her, he is incapable of its true expression because he is incapable of discarding his self. Neither Ichiro nor Onao knows an easy compromise; and because of the old traditions they live within, divorce is impossible. What makes the situation worse still is that in their society their Strindbergian battle cannot be brought out into the open; it is a constant duel of two minds which allows for no finality. When Ichiro declares: "To die, to go mad, or to enter religion - these are the only three courses left open to me," it suddenly become apparent that his is the pllight of modern man in hopeless isolation from his own universe. --- from book's back cover