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l1t_n3rd 's review for:
The Setting Sun
by Osamu Dazai, Donald Keene
i didn't expect that i'd ever read this book, and i didn't expect liking it either, but both of those things happened and i'm not complaining about that.
of the many reasons why i enjoyed this book, i would have to say that the most prominent is dazai-san's character writing. i would say that this is a good example of how great dazai-san’s character writing is. i’ve read two of his books, ‘no longer human’ and ‘the schoolgirl’, aside from this one, and i’ve noticed that the characters in all of them are quite well-written. not only were they realistic and quite human, but they were also multi-faceted with many layers, and i would say that the character who showed this best was the narrator, kazuko. i have a lot to say about how she was written, most of which are things that i noticed about the things that she says and her personality, but they would all be spoiling the book. another thing i’ve noticed is how all of them seem to have traits that were present in dazai-san’s personality, and i found it nice to see little bits and pieces of the author’s character in his own characters.
i also found this book to be quite enjoyable because it gave me insight on this time period, which i know little of. from what i know, i imagined that it would be quite a miserable time to be alive, and dazai-san captured the atmosphere, which was weighed down by sadness and tragedy, quite well. another thing, that relates to this, is that i found that dazai-san captured the characters' emotions quite well, which i believe to be quite the difficult feat.
overall, i liked reading this book. i feel like, with dazai-san's books in general actually, i can't quite tell whether people will like it or not, which is mostly because of the themes and the general atmosphere of this book. i would say that it's definitely worth reading if anyone wants to read it, even though i wouldn't recommend it specifically.
of the many reasons why i enjoyed this book, i would have to say that the most prominent is dazai-san's character writing. i would say that this is a good example of how great dazai-san’s character writing is. i’ve read two of his books, ‘no longer human’ and ‘the schoolgirl’, aside from this one, and i’ve noticed that the characters in all of them are quite well-written. not only were they realistic and quite human, but they were also multi-faceted with many layers, and i would say that the character who showed this best was the narrator, kazuko. i have a lot to say about how she was written, most of which are things that i noticed about the things that she says and her personality, but they would all be spoiling the book. another thing i’ve noticed is how all of them seem to have traits that were present in dazai-san’s personality, and i found it nice to see little bits and pieces of the author’s character in his own characters.
i also found this book to be quite enjoyable because it gave me insight on this time period, which i know little of. from what i know, i imagined that it would be quite a miserable time to be alive, and dazai-san captured the atmosphere, which was weighed down by sadness and tragedy, quite well. another thing, that relates to this, is that i found that dazai-san captured the characters' emotions quite well, which i believe to be quite the difficult feat.
overall, i liked reading this book. i feel like, with dazai-san's books in general actually, i can't quite tell whether people will like it or not, which is mostly because of the themes and the general atmosphere of this book. i would say that it's definitely worth reading if anyone wants to read it, even though i wouldn't recommend it specifically.