Review by quiksilver91 - No Longer Human

quiksilver91 's review for:

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

4.0

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Alienation is a result of distorted perception, a perception that society imposed on so-called "humans", by which we, the humans, either align ourselves to its (c)laws or risk getting shunned.

One thing I do abhor is how he saw his misfortunes to be related, if not caused, by women when he, in his irrationality, muttered "I'm going somewhere where there aren't any women." Yet, he also confided it was comical and idiotic to think like that, a slip of the tongue that his caretakers took in sincerity. Words are strangely too powerful, but taken out of context, it can be deadly.

An eccentric, a criminal, a lunatic, and an outcast... not a victim of his father's form of love, if it even existed, not a victim of his circumstances, and definitely not a victim of his relationships with people who took advantage of his passivity, his stance of least resistance. Labels give you an idea, and so does "he was a good boy, an angel" uttered by a woman .

One might well argue that all of those that happened to him are products of his choices, his actions, taken or not taken, and I can't fault you if that's also your argument, but don't you think that should apply first and foremost to his father and the maidservants of his household, all the same to Horiki, Tsuneko, Flatfish, Yoshiko, and his siblings?

I find it odd but consoling how strangers are even better to him than his own blood under such dire circumstances. To him, whose instinct of survival was to flee, restarting a 'new' life with people who knew not of your past and background, he navigated life without so much as a compass...

Sometimes I see books as answers to an inquiry of life, just another universal aspect of living. This book answers the question: "How does it feel to NOT belong?"

Content Warnings