chaynes73 's review for:

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

4.0

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This book is a highly introspective view into how mental health shapes how people view themselves and others. This is told through the lens of a man named Yozo, where the reader follows his unhappy life from childhood to adulthood. Being a part of a big family and having an inability to truly connect with his parents at a young age inhibits his earliest form of socialization. These effects snowball as he begins attending school, where he begins “clowning” as an effort to build relationships with others. In reality it is just interaction, not connection. Some of his mental health struggles are caused by his upbringing, and others are unique to him, such as fleeing from relationships when they begin getting too deep. In living a life that is meaningless, Yozo turns to substances to escape his lack of fitting in. He feels like someone who cannot accept love and condemns himself, but he wants deeply to experience authentic joy. The emotionless structure of the book depicts Yozo’s internal monologue with little development of other characters, which is fitting because he struggles to empathize with others or understand their thoughts. Additionally, he lives during a time when mental health is not widely discussed. Just as he was forgotten about as a child, his condition becomes overlooked and even dismissed into adulthood. As Dazai uses No Longer Human to confront the darkest parts of the human psyche, many readers will relate to the feelings of being socially deviant some way and struggling to figure out who we really are. For both Yozo and ourselves, the question becomes how we respond and find true belonging in the world when we feel like we’re on the outside.