A review by sdwoodchuck
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

5.0

 Oba Yozo comes from a wealthy family, but finds himself unable to connect socially with his peers, feeling as though he is somehow less than human. Fearful of being found out, he maintains a facade of insouciant humor, while suffering from profound loneliness and self-loathing, leading to a life of alcoholism, addiction, and harm to those unfortunate enough to get close to him.

This is a hard book to talk about or recommend, because the things happening are uniformly miserable, but there’s something really incredible in the way the narration is able to keep the events at arms length and delve wholly into the mind of the narrator/protagonist. It’s also a book that uses its epilogue to completely reframe the context of everything before, not in the way of changing the events, but reshaping our idea of a character by giving an outsider’s view on the character and the world he inhabited that is both more aware and more sympathetic.