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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
dark
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Splendid portrayal of a post-war nation adjusting from a feudal society to a rapid industrialization and westernization. This shows how the war had a destructive effect on Japan's moral and social values as well as causing the decline of aristocracy in Japan. However, I must say I enjoyed No Longer Human more than this one. The narrator in this book, Kazuko, fell almost flat to me. She didn't stood out enough and her voice seems interchangeable to other characters therefore I sometimes had troubles understanding her. Her brother, Naoji, however, fascinates me. Here comes this young man, fresh from the war, utterly destroyed and thinks of nothing else other than death. I can't help but felt awed when I read his journal entry below:
"When I feigned indifference, they classed me as the indifferent type. But when I inadvertently groaned because I was really in pain, they started the rumor that I was faking suffering. The world is out of joint."
He is the one that keeps me going really.
"When I feigned indifference, they classed me as the indifferent type. But when I inadvertently groaned because I was really in pain, they started the rumor that I was faking suffering. The world is out of joint."
He is the one that keeps me going really.
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
For a novel I read in a day and a half, it has made a solid impact on me.
A rating of four stars is simply due to its brevity, and the content within being quite oddly translated.
The novel gave me moments of shock, sadness, joy, confusion- and dread, as a certain character passes on similarly to the author as they did in 1948. It was a shock, yet as someone who grew up around varying degrees of Japanese culture and history understanding I can to a point understand the timeframe mindsets based on what I know. It was for a time honorable if you were a disappointment or a disgrace to your family name, yet the novel refers to “revolutions” in seemingly any act that would demolish the previous ideologies of the Japanese aristocratic class.
I loved this, and I’m sad it is over. But at the same time, I am saddened further knowing the novel echoed eventual events for the author as stated on the back of the novel itself.
Rest in Eternal Slumber.
This review and others like it will be eventually added to a site dedicated to long form reviews. Our handle is @thelibraryfromscratch . Thank you so much for reading! If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, reach out to your local hotline. Save a life, and be safe. Know you’re loved. - Jillian
A rating of four stars is simply due to its brevity, and the content within being quite oddly translated.
The novel gave me moments of shock, sadness, joy, confusion- and dread, as a certain character passes on similarly to the author as they did in 1948. It was a shock, yet as someone who grew up around varying degrees of Japanese culture and history understanding I can to a point understand the timeframe mindsets based on what I know. It was for a time honorable if you were a disappointment or a disgrace to your family name, yet the novel refers to “revolutions” in seemingly any act that would demolish the previous ideologies of the Japanese aristocratic class.
I loved this, and I’m sad it is over. But at the same time, I am saddened further knowing the novel echoed eventual events for the author as stated on the back of the novel itself.
Rest in Eternal Slumber.
This review and others like it will be eventually added to a site dedicated to long form reviews. Our handle is @thelibraryfromscratch . Thank you so much for reading! If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, reach out to your local hotline. Save a life, and be safe. Know you’re loved. - Jillian
2.5/5
There are a lot of folks who were rich enough to become famous for their writing and a lot of folks who weren't. That statement has more than a little bitter hyperbole mixed in with its more grounded analysis, but just as you can't become a saint without having first renounced grand wealth according to the Catholic doctrine, it's hard to acquire the habitus necessary for being quoted in the ivory towers or being rewarded in the capitalistic echelons if you're not raised accordingly. Dazai/Tsushima rides that rail of disillusion in a time out of joint that many a soul that looks to literature as their main vehicle for escapism can recognize, and there's nothing like the aesthetics of aristocracy sunk down into the humdrum of white collar work for sucking in the typical soul who believes themselves onepromotion away from being a millionaire and in reality is two paychecks away from being unhoused. In Dazai's case, I'm more than capable of sympathizing, mayhaps even empathizing, given my own experiences with mental illness, disjointed career path, and Japanese literature. However, there really are too many absurd instances of character development, clownish treatment of real world ideologies, and general 'o woe is non-rich me let me characterize the class structure of the world as natural rather than inheritance predicated on centuries of violence and rapacious fetishization,' especially in a book of this length. In all honesty, at multiple points during the read I found myself wondering when I would start my next Mishima, where at least I could be guaranteed some chance of queerness, whether innuendo or more overt. So, not the worst book as a first introduction to Japanese literature, but if you've read more than your fair share, including much in the early 20th c./post WWII vein of things, you may be left rather cold, and I'm not just talking about the social courtesies of aristocrats.
There are a lot of folks who were rich enough to become famous for their writing and a lot of folks who weren't. That statement has more than a little bitter hyperbole mixed in with its more grounded analysis, but just as you can't become a saint without having first renounced grand wealth according to the Catholic doctrine, it's hard to acquire the habitus necessary for being quoted in the ivory towers or being rewarded in the capitalistic echelons if you're not raised accordingly. Dazai/Tsushima rides that rail of disillusion in a time out of joint that many a soul that looks to literature as their main vehicle for escapism can recognize, and there's nothing like the aesthetics of aristocracy sunk down into the humdrum of white collar work for sucking in the typical soul who believes themselves onepromotion away from being a millionaire and in reality is two paychecks away from being unhoused. In Dazai's case, I'm more than capable of sympathizing, mayhaps even empathizing, given my own experiences with mental illness, disjointed career path, and Japanese literature. However, there really are too many absurd instances of character development, clownish treatment of real world ideologies, and general 'o woe is non-rich me let me characterize the class structure of the world as natural rather than inheritance predicated on centuries of violence and rapacious fetishization,' especially in a book of this length. In all honesty, at multiple points during the read I found myself wondering when I would start my next Mishima, where at least I could be guaranteed some chance of queerness, whether innuendo or more overt. So, not the worst book as a first introduction to Japanese literature, but if you've read more than your fair share, including much in the early 20th c./post WWII vein of things, you may be left rather cold, and I'm not just talking about the social courtesies of aristocrats.
Whenever i read Dazai, i feel like I‘m taking a look into his own diary. The slowly decay of a human, and the question of who we are and what is destroying us. Poetic and simple, especially if you know Dazais biography, you realize that he just keeps telling his own story over and over again. No moral, no bildungsauftrag, just the brain of a depressed man
"quando volli essere considerato precoce, la gente sparse immediatamente la voce che lo ero. Quando mi comportai come un fannullone, la gente sparse la voce che ero un perdigiorno. Quando finsi di non saper scrivere un romanzo, la gente disse subito che non sapevo tenere la penna in mano. Quando finsi di essere un bugiardo, la gente mormorò che mentivo. Quando finsi di essere ricco, la gente sparse la voce che avevo un sacco di soldi. Quando volli farmi credere indifferente, la gente andava dicendo che lo ero. Ma quando mi lamentai sinceramente che soffrivo, tutti sostennero che il mio dolore era simulato."