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| Author: Yukio Mishima | Translator: Meredith Weatherby |
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| Format: | Paperback |
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Product Summary
Format: Paperback
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
ISBN-10: 081120118X
ISBN-13: 9780811201186
Buy.com Sku: 30169828
Publish Date: 6/1/1958
Dimensions:
(in Inches) 8H x 5L x 0.75T
Pages:
254
See more in Literary
For many years I claimed I could remember things seen at the time of my own birth. (from the first line)
| One of the classics of modern Japanese fiction. |
|
From the Publisher:
This book is one of the classics of modern Japanese fiction. It is the story of an adolescent who must learn to live with the painful fact that he is unlike other young men. Mishima's protagonist discovers that he is becoming a homosexual in a polite, post-war Japan. To survive, he must live behind a mask of propriety.When a Japanese youth discovers he has homosexual tendencies he hides himself behind conventional behavior |
Author Bio
Yukio Mishima
The prolific writer Yukio Mishima was the author of 40 novels as well as poetry, essays, and modern Kabuki ja Noh drama. Born in Tokyo, Mishima worked in a factory during World War II, then studied law at Tokyo University and worked as a civil servant before devoting himself entirely to writing. His first major work was
CONFESSIONS OF A MASK (1949), and dealt with his discovery of his own homosexuality; his tetralogy, SEA OF FERTILITY (1965-1970), is regarded by many as his most lasting achievement. Mishima was deeply attracted to the austerity and martial spirit of Japan's past, and was an expert in the martial arts. In 1968 he founded a private army of young men dedicated to a revival of the samurai code of honor. In 1970, feeling that his country had lost its soul, Mishima and four members of his army stormed into a military headquarters in Tokyo, attempting to to take it over as a way of inspiring the Japanese to his nationalist heroic ideals. After the failure of the attempt, he committed seppuku (ritual disembowelment) with his sword. Following samurai ritual, a young disciple then cut off Mishima's head before killing himself as well. A film of Mishima's life appeared in 1985, directed by Paul Schrader.
CONFESSIONS OF A MASK (1949), and dealt with his discovery of his own homosexuality; his tetralogy, SEA OF FERTILITY (1965-1970), is regarded by many as his most lasting achievement. Mishima was deeply attracted to the austerity and martial spirit of Japan's past, and was an expert in the martial arts. In 1968 he founded a private army of young men dedicated to a revival of the samurai code of honor. In 1970, feeling that his country had lost its soul, Mishima and four members of his army stormed into a military headquarters in Tokyo, attempting to to take it over as a way of inspiring the Japanese to his nationalist heroic ideals. After the failure of the attempt, he committed seppuku (ritual disembowelment) with his sword. Following samurai ritual, a young disciple then cut off Mishima's head before killing himself as well. A film of Mishima's life appeared in 1985, directed by Paul Schrader.
Entertainment Reviews
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Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima - Book Review
By: Jessica Schneider
Blogcritics.org Reviews
Published on: 2/21/2010 6:12 PM
|
| Yukio Mishima is one of those writers who, like Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun, is likely more known for his outrageous political beliefs than for his work itself. This is not to say that Mishima’s work is not well known among certain literary circles, but as he came recommended, I was told not only of his cult like following, but also of his suicide, where he committed the ritual act of seppuku at the age of forty-five. Confessions of a Mask is a decent, solid book, one with a character that reminds me of The Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield, that is, if Holden were Japanese and perhaps gay....read the full review | |
Book Jacket
"One might say, 'Here is a Japanese Gide,'....But no, Mishima is himself--a very Japanese Mishima; lucid in the midst of emotional confusion, funny in the midst of despair, quite without pomposity, sentimentality or self-pity. His book, like no other, has made me understand a little of how it feels to be Japanese. I think it is greatly superior, as art and as a human document to his deservedly praised novel, 'The Sound of Waves'." - Christopher Isherwood
"One might say, 'Here is a Japanese Gide,'....But no, Mishima is himself--a very Japanese Mishima; lucid in the midst of emotional confusion, funny in the midst of despair, quite without pomposity, sentimentality or self-pity. His book, like no other, has made me understand a little of how it feels to be Japanese. I think it is greatly superior, as art and as a human document to his deservedly praised novel, 'The Sound of Waves'." - Christopher Isherwood
