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A review by cameronbradley
Runaway Horses: The Sea of Fertility, 2 by Yukio Mishima
4.0
Spring Snow, the first book in the Sea of Fertility tetralogy was an absolute gem of a novel. Runaway Horses, for me, was...okay. There are two more books in the series, and although I plan on reading them, my expectations are not so high.
The story of this novel concerns a young man named Isao who is coming of age in Japan in the early 30's during the time of the Great Depression. Rice is being imported, corporate fatcats are making the big bucks, and farmers and factory workers are screwed.
Shit's bad.
Isao, a kendo prodigy, has been radicalized by a novella called The League of the Divine Wind, which has instilled in him an overwhelming desire to die a hero, i.e.: instigate an insurrection, kill the capitalists profiting from Japan's poverty, and then commit seppuku (ritual suicide).
Most Western readers (myself included) will have trouble getting into Isao's head and understanding the sense of loyalty, honor, and--shall I say---manliness associated with committing seppuku. It just doesn't compute, which is the main reason why I struggled with Isao's logic (or lack thereof).
As frustrating as Isao is as a character, at least his political extremism is interesting in a foreboding, menacing way. Far more annoying is the character Honda, who in Spring Snow was the logical and pragmatic foil to his romantic friend Kiyoaki, but in this book he has his own superstitious foibles which I can't get into without ruining the ending to Spring Snow; and unlike some other literary "series" (John Updike's Rabbit novels, for example), this book (and I suspect the books that follow) don't make much sense without reading the previous installments.
I will say this though: this book, like George Eliot's Middlemarch, is a slow burn; there are parts in the final third of the book that had me gripped. And some incredible and beautiful language is sprinkled throughout the novel as a whole. I give it 3.5 stars.
The story of this novel concerns a young man named Isao who is coming of age in Japan in the early 30's during the time of the Great Depression. Rice is being imported, corporate fatcats are making the big bucks, and farmers and factory workers are screwed.
Shit's bad.
Isao, a kendo prodigy, has been radicalized by a novella called The League of the Divine Wind, which has instilled in him an overwhelming desire to die a hero, i.e.: instigate an insurrection, kill the capitalists profiting from Japan's poverty, and then commit seppuku (ritual suicide).
Most Western readers (myself included) will have trouble getting into Isao's head and understanding the sense of loyalty, honor, and--shall I say---manliness associated with committing seppuku. It just doesn't compute, which is the main reason why I struggled with Isao's logic (or lack thereof).
As frustrating as Isao is as a character, at least his political extremism is interesting in a foreboding, menacing way. Far more annoying is the character Honda, who in Spring Snow was the logical and pragmatic foil to his romantic friend Kiyoaki, but in this book he has his own superstitious foibles which I can't get into without ruining the ending to Spring Snow; and unlike some other literary "series" (John Updike's Rabbit novels, for example), this book (and I suspect the books that follow) don't make much sense without reading the previous installments.
I will say this though: this book, like George Eliot's Middlemarch, is a slow burn; there are parts in the final third of the book that had me gripped. And some incredible and beautiful language is sprinkled throughout the novel as a whole. I give it 3.5 stars.