After the banquet
(Book)

Translation of Utage no Ato.

Redoubtable middle-aged Kazu falls hopelessly in love with Yuken Noguchi, idealist politician of the Radical Party. The problem is, Noguchi cannot see practical politics for what it is: a form of ideological prostitution. Kazu, who has come up in the world the hard way, bears no illusions - Noguchi, for all his bookish wisdom, has a lot of them. Kazu is the proprietor of a Setsugoan, an After-Snow-Retreat, where she is in the habit of entertaining the high-and-the-mighty of Japan. One day after a banquet, Tamaki, former ambassador to Germany, collapses in the toilet. The subsequent hullabaloo manages to throw Noguchi and Kazu together, and this gentleman of sixty and woman of fifty find themselves falling head-over-heels in love like teenagers. They become man and wife, and soon afterwards, Noguchi is chosen to run for office by the Radical Party. What is essentially an ideological fight for him, however, is just a fight for victory for his wife. Her methods, which are not wholly fair and aboveboard, invite Noguchi's wrath and their relationship soon begins to crack. And soon, Caesar's wife is attacked: then events proceed at a pace which nobody can control.

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