Synonyms for “Evil”

An unnamed writer leaves Odawara for Tokyo after a family quarrel, taking his wife and small son with him. He intends to write, to visit a geisha who knew his father, and to answer an old friend in Boston. Yet each intention leads him back to drink, resentment, and the discovery that even his most private thoughts may be poses.

His dead father becomes a half-comforting fairy tale, while his living mother proves harder to place at a safe distance. A pair of opera glasses, a rocking desk, unfinished knitting, and an old dictionary become instruments of self-scrutiny. When he looks up “evil,” its synonyms seem to describe a heart he had imagined divided against itself.

Makino Shin’ichi turns domestic conflict and artistic failure into a darkly comic study of vanity, dependence, and confession. This complete new English translation preserves all nine sections, shifting memories, quoted songs, and the unsettling final image. AI-assisted translation.