A review by mi7sma
The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai

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

4.75

I feel very strongly about this book since I relate to Naoji(kazuko's brother). Not the drug part but rather his outlook on life and so on. As for kazuko, even though she belonged to the remnants of japanese aristocracy, instead of clinging on to it as a feeble and desperate attempt of self preservation, she works as a commoner and toils away nursing her ailing mother who ended up dying from tuberculosis (it didn't have a treatment method back then, all you could've done was to ease the pain by morphine and camphor injections). Throughout the book, snakes were regarded as harbingers of death but also renewal since with the death of her mother and brother she was finally free. Emotionally and spiritually. Sure she was forlorn about it but at the end she learned to accept the way of the circle of life. I personally loved the imagery in this book and the almost clingy nature of kazuko for Mr. Uehara(the blunt novelist). I liked how she wasn't caught up in the norm of having an obsequious front to woo others. Girl meant was she said.  Preach! 
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