"Dubbed by the Japanese as "the 21st Century's Dandy," Inagaki Taruho writes short and incredibly concentrated stories of his favorite things: machines, airplanes, modern fairies, Saturn, falling stars, the tin moon, geometrical shapes, boys, policemen, aromatic Turkish cigarettes, black cats who turn into smoke, crashing comets, gay bars, and numerous other subjects which run throughout his tales. Writing from the 1920s to the 1970s, Inagaki is a true original, seen by many Japanese as the equal in talent of Tanizaki, Kawabata, and Mishima, and as one of the great Japanese writers of the 20th century."--BOOK JACKET.