As in "Buddenbrooks," we are introduced to a bourgeois family in decline, and through them we enter deeply into their society, so different from our own--and both societies, Germany in the late 19th century and Japan just before World War II, are about to undergo tremendous changes. And as in Jane Austen, the plot is propelled by the search for a husband, in this case for the third Makioka sister. This book is absolutely enthralling. It's long, but the pages fly by.