A review by ash0ncloud2306
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Spoiler (later on): I personally didn’t “love” nor “liked” the book but I did understand it. I understand it’s a suicidal note which makes it sad and to know it’s a semi autobiography makes it even awful. The main character did not have any redeemable qualities at all other than his self-awareness most of the times (except his misogynistic views and thoughts and feelings). There were some things that just made me question myself why am I reading this book? I was hoping for the main character redemption arc. I was really rooting for him. And at the end “Everything passes”. At least to my understanding, that is the whole point of the book where the main character holds no redeemable qualities which makes him disqualified as a human… no longer a human. At the epilogue, they call him an Angel so perhaps he is not a human because he is not that species (I am only connecting ideas here and there or the want of connecting ideas so this can be ignored). Also he was called an Angel at the epilogue though his life…. He was not being his true self I feel or took a stand for his art. Lots of self sabotaging along with not really wanting anything. He wanted a book as a present from his dad in the beginning and that was disappointing to everyone in the family so there’s a lot of psychological issues from the main character which I felt bad for. I was really rooting for him. I really was :/ I don’t know how I feel about the book tbh. I’m not happy nor sad. Just empty. If anyone gets attached to the author and work, I’d recommend this book. I wouldn’t really recommend it to people though. It had great prose. There’s just… questionable things in there that I can’t slide it away. I mean read the book at your will. This is my opinion. 
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