Reviews - Bekentenissen van een gemaskerde

1.27k reviews for:

Bekentenissen van een gemaskerde

Yukio Mishima

3.87 AVERAGE

i_viol3ta's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

0_aslowreader_0's review against another edition

5.0

Confessions of a Mask are the musings of Mishima's character ko-chan as he explores his own gender identity and sexuality. It shows us the internal monologue and how He processes the feelings he has along with the pretext of a society where being happy is seen as a strange thing to be (1945 Japan).

If i had to look beyond the his character (who is often times very relatable) the writing of Mishima himself reflects a pedagogy of those who are proficient in the language. Giving us so many analogies to describe the most mundane or the most absurd emotions, Mishima draws you in and leaves you no chance to escape from his style.

Closing the review, I'd say this piece of art made me feel closer to the Author himself. Would be looking forward on reading more of his works.

Spoiler

chapter 3
page 115

wonderterror's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

Strong character development: No

catandherbooks's review against another edition

3.0

dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

barrypierce's review against another edition

4.0

It is crazy to think that next year we will be celebrating Confessions of a Mask's 70th birthday. Mishima's queer classic, his second novel (written in his early 20s) and earliest currently available in English, is a coming-of-age story of a young boy who struggles with his queerness.

When Kochan happens upon a reproduction of Reni's Saint Sebastian in a book he is immediately drawn to the overt homoeroticism of the work. The perfect male physique pared with the gashes and wounds of the arrows implanted within his torso act as a mirror for the novel itself. For the two main themes of Confessions (and quite a lot of Mishima's other works) are male queerness and sadomasochism. Both are explored beautifully through Mishima's unflinching prose.

When reading this I was somewhat taken aback by its sheer influence on the world of queer literature, particularly in the works of Edmund White. I was not aware of just how much of A Boy's Own Story owns a debt to Confessions. In fact nearly all major coming-of-age queer tales seem to eventually trace their genealogy back to Kochan.

An engrossing and influential tale, Confessions of a Mask is still as fresh (and shocking) in 2018 as it was in 1949. It was the foundations upon which Mishima planted his immense literary legacy. An essential book in the queer canon.

rkived's review against another edition

4.0

Compared to the rest of my readings for September (my final book for #StillWithYouMoonchildProject), this is actually quite high up in my ranks in terms of literary novel/coming-of-age genre that I read. In comparison with the rest it was the perfect blend of poignant, introspective, reflective and generally easier "language" to consume/process. The author had a good balance of writing out the struggling thoughts that the MC had, coupled with poetic writing he embellished for the concept of The Mask (aka talking about stage, performance, theater, acting when it comes to him trying to hide his true self -- aka singularity !!!!). I didn't have to keep checking the dictionary nor wreck my dummy brain to even try to understand what's going on or what the author keeps trying to philosophize about, yet it's not superbly simple to the point of it being in your face - there were still subtexts and nuance in the writing that felt personal. I loved reading these kind of writing:

"Everyone had the air of having been taken prisoner by the feeling commonly called "love of one's own flesh and blood"; it was as though the emotions one normally keeps hidden within had been turned inside out and were smarting painfully with rawness." so beautiful, so pretty.

Overall I enjoyed it more than I expected, including the times I felt "wtf this is hilarious" even though it wasn't meant to be that way ~~this book will always reminds me of himbos and armpit hair now~~.

I can't ignore the dark sides of it though, so I might as well bring it up - TRIGGER WARNINGS: suicidal ideation, depression, family death. I don't remember if the author had included internalised/outright homophobia in it as well, but considering this book is about the MC coming into terms to his sexuality, there's a probability that it's in. Keep these in mind before you decide to read it because the author tends to be blunt about his reflective thoughts (aka some felt close to home, man)