Reviews - The Setting Sun | The StoryGraph

The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai, Donald Keene

2.06k reviews for:

it's a good book, but i'm not sure how to feel about it. it definitely has a beautiful but quite tragic story, and I relate to kazuko on a mild level (her love and relationship with her mother really had me clutching my heart, her relationship with naoji was... too similar with my own siblings to my liking; i annotated the hell out of my copy of the book; i cried over certain parts of the book, especially when it involved the mother; but at the end, i just felt... empty.

i had just finished another book which was much more lighthearted and modern than this, and i suppose i didn't get the same hard-hitting feeling since i was still riding out my feelings from my previous read. + i don't think i understood much of the metaphors and the symbolisms used in this book, but i just have a feeling that it's deep. maybe i'm not that literate to understand any of it just yet... ^^; but i liked reading it regardless!

intothecavewewander's review against another edition

2.75

dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

newmoonx's review against another edition

4.0

reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

caroleia's review against another edition

3.5

informative reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

lee_readsbooks's review against another edition

3.5

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

ehead's review against another edition

Very emo. Started off well enough, but ultimately didn't resonate with me at this time. I found the emotional world of the characters fairly impenetrable.