Reviews

Beautiful Star by Yukio Mishima

teri2_2's review

dark funny reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

ariaojou's review against another edition

hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I spent the first half wondering if I'm reading a sci-fi or a contemporary fiction about a family that's a bit messed up in the head, and the other half having fin either way, so mission accomplished!

45inertia's review

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

ebreeze's review against another edition

hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

bookishmornings's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

brose's review against another edition

2.5

Do not, and I repeat, DO NOT!! read this book and then take drugs. 

metamorphesque's review

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

• this might be a higher rating due to my bias for anything with astronomical lore 
• very bonkers, very philosophical - loved some passages and detested others
• sliightly (maybe more actually) misogynistic but it is to be expected of mishima if you are reading his stuff and still get surprised by that, you've not read shit by him
• an incredible story about humanity being on the cusp of a brutal atomic age, due to Russia and Cuba testing nuclear weapons at the time of writing, and whether or not this path to demise is something that we could be saved from was cool to read it during the oppenheimer hype
• mishima essentially questions humanity's ways of feeling, especially when it comes to loneliness
• the things we become attached to in order to fill a 'void' and the way in which we devise scenarios in our heads to comfort ourselves through fear and painful timessss

anurris's review against another edition

adventurous informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

achillreads's review

1.0

if you are planning to start reading mishima, don't let this be your first book. or on your list for any time soon.

this was out of my general expectations for a mishima, in a bad way. it was an interesting read at first, but then started to drag out after i got to the mid-point.

a family who thinks they are or are aliens work on bringing world peace, but it all goes wrong, and they fail with their task only to move into "human" matters while they still see themselves as superior beings.

while this would surely be an interesting book to read for a literary disection, it still doesn't change my displeasure with it.

i will still be reading mishima's works, but will do my best to forget this one.

chrism1's review

4.0

Through the use of science fiction, Yukio Mishima explores what it means to connect to other people in his overlooked novel, Beautiful Star. Mishima uses the sci-form to write about the social and emotional estrangement that happened in Japan during the early sixties. Mishima's novel is his reaction to what he saw as a lawless Japan where the power structures were upended and he wanted to return to the safety of tradition and hierarchies.

The novel is fragmented, and there are definitely parts that are slow, but I found this an intriguing time capsule of what Mishima was thinking in the early sixties. I appreciated how the Osugi family stood in for the Japanese families of the sixties, and how their quest for information and connection highlights the difficulty of such a venture.

This is a must for any Mishima fan.