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Life for Sale
'Life for sale. Use me as you wish. I am a twenty-seven-year-old male. Discretion guaranteed. Will cause no bother at all.'
When Hanio Yamada realizes the future holds nothing of worth to him, he puts his life for sale in a Tokyo newspaper, thus unleashing a series of unimaginable exploits.
A world of revenge, murderous mobsters, hidden cameras, a vampire woman, poisonous carrots, espionage and code-breaking, a junkie heiress, home-made explosives and decoys reveals itself to the unwitting Hanio. Is there anything he can do to stop it?
When Hanio Yamada realizes the future holds nothing of worth to him, he puts his life for sale in a Tokyo newspaper, thus unleashing a series of unimaginable exploits.
A world of revenge, murderous mobsters, hidden cameras, a vampire woman, poisonous carrots, espionage and code-breaking, a junkie heiress, home-made explosives and decoys reveals itself to the unwitting Hanio. Is there anything he can do to stop it?
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
About the author
Yukio Mishima
440 books8,000 followersYukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫) was born in Tokyo in 1925. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University’s School of Jurisprudence in 1947. His first published book, The Forest in Full Bloom, appeared in 1944 and he established himself as a major author with Confessions of a Mask (1949). From then until his death he continued to publish novels, short stories, and plays each year. His crowning achievement, the Sea of Fertility tetralogy—which contains the novels Spring Snow (1969), Runaway Horses (1969), The Temple of Dawn (1970), and The Decay of the Angel (1971)—is considered one of the definitive works of twentieth-century Japanese fiction. In 1970, at the age of forty-five and the day after completing the last novel in the Fertility series, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide)—a spectacular death that attracted worldwide attention.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,429 reviews
October 25, 2019
Propulsive romp from Mishima, a major departure from anything I've seen by him. This is an intentionally campy, pulpy novel about a man who decides to sell his own life. A sequence of linked vignettes unspools - there are vampires, spies, rants about carrots, and a fairly ludicrous number of sex scenes. The book has low stakes, so Mishima's occasional turns toward the philosophical don't land, but this is a fun satire, and an interesting complication in his oeuvre.
February 17, 2021
Years ago I read a little book called Pulp by Charles Bukowski in which he tried to write an absurdist comedic noir. There were aspects of it that I really enjoyed, but a lot that I felt was flawed. Now it's Mishima's turn to do the exact same thing.
The plot: Hanio Yamada wants to die. After a botched suicide attempt, he comes up with a new idea. He will put an ad out in the newspaper, putting his life for sale. Someone will pay and have him die in a way that will at least aid someone else. What follows is a series of misadventures in which each time he somehow manages to survive his client's seemingly deadly task.
Well... this is as absurd as noir gets. I can not stress this enough: this is one of the most bizarre books I have ever read. Tell me, what other book can you find botched suicide attempts, gangsters, conspiracies, a dinner conversation with a plush mouse, a vampire and carrots used in an espionage scheme? Oh, and I'm not even covering half of the batshit insane things in this novel... Each client's task becomes increasingly absurd, to such and extent that one can't help laugh.
Written at the same time as his most literary ambitious project, his Sea of Fertility series, and serialized in the magazine Weekly Playboy... this was obviously a commercial project written for the money. Yet, especially when one considers the depth of his other project at the time, it also seems like he wrote it for a break. This book is ridiculous. This is Mishima, well, having fun. It's silly, intentionally so (CARROTS), and I imagine after a while he had to be sitting there shaking his head in amazement that they were paying him to write this.
Is it a good book? Not really. It's an extremely fun send up of pulp noir but it's extremely flawed. A few plot lines are left dangling (one actually frustrating as it seemed to be something set up for later and disregarded). I honestly would say that many fans of Mishima will be incredibly disappointed reading it as he very clearly is not aiming at making a grand statement about the world (and when he does insert what could be a grand statement it comes off comedic as it's hard to take anything seriously here). I can't really recommend the book for everyone, but...
...
To hell with it, 4/5 stars, because honestly it's that damn fun.
The plot: Hanio Yamada wants to die. After a botched suicide attempt, he comes up with a new idea. He will put an ad out in the newspaper, putting his life for sale. Someone will pay and have him die in a way that will at least aid someone else. What follows is a series of misadventures in which each time he somehow manages to survive his client's seemingly deadly task.
Well... this is as absurd as noir gets. I can not stress this enough: this is one of the most bizarre books I have ever read. Tell me, what other book can you find botched suicide attempts, gangsters, conspiracies, a dinner conversation with a plush mouse, a vampire and carrots used in an espionage scheme? Oh, and I'm not even covering half of the batshit insane things in this novel... Each client's task becomes increasingly absurd, to such and extent that one can't help laugh.
Written at the same time as his most literary ambitious project, his Sea of Fertility series, and serialized in the magazine Weekly Playboy... this was obviously a commercial project written for the money. Yet, especially when one considers the depth of his other project at the time, it also seems like he wrote it for a break. This book is ridiculous. This is Mishima, well, having fun. It's silly, intentionally so (CARROTS), and I imagine after a while he had to be sitting there shaking his head in amazement that they were paying him to write this.
Is it a good book? Not really. It's an extremely fun send up of pulp noir but it's extremely flawed. A few plot lines are left dangling (one actually frustrating as it seemed to be something set up for later and disregarded). I honestly would say that many fans of Mishima will be incredibly disappointed reading it as he very clearly is not aiming at making a grand statement about the world (and when he does insert what could be a grand statement it comes off comedic as it's hard to take anything seriously here). I can't really recommend the book for everyone, but...
...
To hell with it, 4/5 stars, because honestly it's that damn fun.
April 22, 2022
Videorecensione: https://youtu.be/s_bOeZh-DXc
Mishima ha avuto una vita breve ma ha scritto tantissimo.
Ed è una gioia quando un suo libro inedito viene riesumato e pubblicato a sorpresa. Soprattutto perché la garanzia di qualità è sempre comprovata da un livello altissimo.
Ogni sua opera è diversa dalle altre, ma tutte compongono un discorso estremamente coerente dal punto di vista stilistico e tematico.
C'è il Mishima politico, quello introspettivo, quello sanguigno, quello frivolo e satirico.
E poi c'è quello di "Vita in vendita" che è esplosivo, divertentissimo, pulp, surreale.
Un romanzo ricco di inventiva e colpi da maestro.
Scritto benissimo, con la solita prosa del giapponese gloriosamente perfetta, ed estremamente coinvolgente. Si legge in un soffio, tra ribaltamenti e colpi di scena, con un protagonista irresistibile (Hanio, imperturbabile eroe pacco-polacco sempre munito di acidissimo sarcasmo).
A che conseguenze può portare mettere la propria vita in vendita? Può essere davvero il punto di svolta definitivo dopo che i caratteri stampati su un quotidiano scambiati per scarafaggi sono diventati movente lucidissima per un suicidio fallito?
"Vita in vendita" è un tour de force irresistibile che mischia in un frullatore impazzito spy story e commedia nera e dove anche i personaggi secondari rimangono indimenticabili.
Basti pensare alla mia preferita: una sommessa bibliotecaria che ruba dalla biblioteca in cui lavora una preziosissima (e pericolosissima) enciclopedia sulle specie di coleotteri che, tramite ipnosi, possono condurre chiunque al suicido.
Ma ci sono anche degli uomini/spia super-addestrati stroncati da carote avvelenate con il cianuro e vampire condannate dalla consapevolezza che una volta succhiato il sangue dalle arterie del loro amato, quello morirà.
Ma soprattutto c'è anche una bellissima riflessione, costante e sottotesto, sulle sfaccettature della solitudine e sull'impossibilità di accettare le grottesche regole che dominano i rapporti sociali.
PAZZESCO.
Mishima ha avuto una vita breve ma ha scritto tantissimo.
Ed è una gioia quando un suo libro inedito viene riesumato e pubblicato a sorpresa. Soprattutto perché la garanzia di qualità è sempre comprovata da un livello altissimo.
Ogni sua opera è diversa dalle altre, ma tutte compongono un discorso estremamente coerente dal punto di vista stilistico e tematico.
C'è il Mishima politico, quello introspettivo, quello sanguigno, quello frivolo e satirico.
E poi c'è quello di "Vita in vendita" che è esplosivo, divertentissimo, pulp, surreale.
Un romanzo ricco di inventiva e colpi da maestro.
Scritto benissimo, con la solita prosa del giapponese gloriosamente perfetta, ed estremamente coinvolgente. Si legge in un soffio, tra ribaltamenti e colpi di scena, con un protagonista irresistibile (Hanio, imperturbabile eroe pacco-polacco sempre munito di acidissimo sarcasmo).
A che conseguenze può portare mettere la propria vita in vendita? Può essere davvero il punto di svolta definitivo dopo che i caratteri stampati su un quotidiano scambiati per scarafaggi sono diventati movente lucidissima per un suicidio fallito?
"Vita in vendita" è un tour de force irresistibile che mischia in un frullatore impazzito spy story e commedia nera e dove anche i personaggi secondari rimangono indimenticabili.
Basti pensare alla mia preferita: una sommessa bibliotecaria che ruba dalla biblioteca in cui lavora una preziosissima (e pericolosissima) enciclopedia sulle specie di coleotteri che, tramite ipnosi, possono condurre chiunque al suicido.
Ma ci sono anche degli uomini/spia super-addestrati stroncati da carote avvelenate con il cianuro e vampire condannate dalla consapevolezza che una volta succhiato il sangue dalle arterie del loro amato, quello morirà.
Ma soprattutto c'è anche una bellissima riflessione, costante e sottotesto, sulle sfaccettature della solitudine e sull'impossibilità di accettare le grottesche regole che dominano i rapporti sociali.
PAZZESCO.
December 5, 2023
A weird, almost Dali like book that reminds me of a lot of spy movies
To say that human life had no meaning is the easy part. But Hanio was struck all over again by the huge amount of energy required to live a life filled with so much meaninglessness.
Clear fascination with death, the meaninglessness of life, suicide, lots of beautiful women and violence come back in this trippy short book. Reads easily but left me rather underwhelmed, because like Hanio, the main character, you as reader also have a hard time taking everything serious.
Quite interesting how conspiracy theories and secret societies (the ACS, Asia Confidential Service) come back in the book, but unfortunately don't really lead to a pay-off.
It's a weird world Hanio ends up into, quite like the feeling some Haruki Murakami books bring with them. Interesting enough hippy culture is vilified in Life for Sale, but some of the thoughts of Hanio have psychedelic qualities, like: Or, you're playing with a cat, when suddenly deep in its wide meowing maw, reeking of fish, you see jet-blacked ruined streets stretching out before you, like the burnt-out remains of a city after a major air raid.
In the end, despite escapades with a vampire (and an amount of sex with random women James Bond would be jealous of) Hanio starts to see the value of life once more, but rather than uplifting this leads to quite some tension and concern: Come to think of it, he remembered something he had learnt long ago, but had subsequently forgotten - that living and worrying were one and the same thing
However society is not necessarily forgiving and the ACS turns out to be more real (perhaps) than expected, making the ending of the book more grim than I anticipated:
Are you saying that every person must have an address, a home, a wife and kids, and a job?
It’s not me that says it. It's society.
So anyone slightly different is human trash?
You said it.
To say that human life had no meaning is the easy part. But Hanio was struck all over again by the huge amount of energy required to live a life filled with so much meaninglessness.
Clear fascination with death, the meaninglessness of life, suicide, lots of beautiful women and violence come back in this trippy short book. Reads easily but left me rather underwhelmed, because like Hanio, the main character, you as reader also have a hard time taking everything serious.
Quite interesting how conspiracy theories and secret societies (the ACS, Asia Confidential Service) come back in the book, but unfortunately don't really lead to a pay-off.
It's a weird world Hanio ends up into, quite like the feeling some Haruki Murakami books bring with them. Interesting enough hippy culture is vilified in Life for Sale, but some of the thoughts of Hanio have psychedelic qualities, like: Or, you're playing with a cat, when suddenly deep in its wide meowing maw, reeking of fish, you see jet-blacked ruined streets stretching out before you, like the burnt-out remains of a city after a major air raid.
In the end, despite escapades with a vampire (and an amount of sex with random women James Bond would be jealous of) Hanio starts to see the value of life once more, but rather than uplifting this leads to quite some tension and concern: Come to think of it, he remembered something he had learnt long ago, but had subsequently forgotten - that living and worrying were one and the same thing
However society is not necessarily forgiving and the ACS turns out to be more real (perhaps) than expected, making the ending of the book more grim than I anticipated:
Are you saying that every person must have an address, a home, a wife and kids, and a job?
It’s not me that says it. It's society.
So anyone slightly different is human trash?
You said it.
May 1, 2021
TW: suicide
This is an odd little book that is hard to categorize. Fun and strangely mesmerizing... but weird. It's about a young guy who, realizing that life ultimately has no meaning, tries to kill himself. He had no serious problems, no heartbreak or financial worries or illness, no mental anguish he couldn't live with anymore. He just decides there's no meaning, so why stay alive.
Hanio has this revelation and, "his spirits lifted" from the insight, trots off to a pharmacy to buy a bottle of sedatives. He then heads off to the movies, watches a triple feature, and goes to a bar to have a drink. He tries to impress a girl by telling her he's going to kill himself and is disappointed that she's not affected by the information.
Perhaps if he'd managed to elicit more of a reaction from her he wouldn't have gone through with it? I don't know, but then there wouldn't have been a book so she has to not care. Hanio leaves the bar and boards a train. Once seated, he swallows the sedatives.
I found this implausible and was annoyed by it -- suicide isn't an action people do lightly. It takes a lot of courage, pain, and hopelessness to propel one to make the most final (if successful) of actions.
Someone who is going to kill themself doesn't go and tell strangers what they're planning. They don't tell anyone. This guy obviously didn't want to end his life or 1) he wouldn't have told anyone, and 2) he wouldn't have taken the pills in a public place where someone would find and save him.
Unlikely as it is, that's what happens. Hanio, upon regaining consciousness in hospital, decides that he's going to put the burden of taking his life on someone else and writes up an ad for his life.
This all happens in the first seven pages of the book and it's where the story takes off. I stopped caring how improbable it was at that point and just went along for the ride.
Various people with various reasons pay Hanio for his life. They hire him to undertake assignments that imperil his life and might kill him.
This was reminiscent of a Haruki Murakami novel: weird and surrealistic and dreamy. I haven't read enough Japanese authors to say if this is characteristic of Japanese fiction but I was surprised by the similarities to Murakami.
It was a fun trip to take with quirky characters and an entertaining storyline. It's unlikeliness ended up adding to its charm.
This is an odd little book that is hard to categorize. Fun and strangely mesmerizing... but weird. It's about a young guy who, realizing that life ultimately has no meaning, tries to kill himself. He had no serious problems, no heartbreak or financial worries or illness, no mental anguish he couldn't live with anymore. He just decides there's no meaning, so why stay alive.
Hanio has this revelation and, "his spirits lifted" from the insight, trots off to a pharmacy to buy a bottle of sedatives. He then heads off to the movies, watches a triple feature, and goes to a bar to have a drink. He tries to impress a girl by telling her he's going to kill himself and is disappointed that she's not affected by the information.
Perhaps if he'd managed to elicit more of a reaction from her he wouldn't have gone through with it? I don't know, but then there wouldn't have been a book so she has to not care. Hanio leaves the bar and boards a train. Once seated, he swallows the sedatives.
I found this implausible and was annoyed by it -- suicide isn't an action people do lightly. It takes a lot of courage, pain, and hopelessness to propel one to make the most final (if successful) of actions.
Someone who is going to kill themself doesn't go and tell strangers what they're planning. They don't tell anyone. This guy obviously didn't want to end his life or 1) he wouldn't have told anyone, and 2) he wouldn't have taken the pills in a public place where someone would find and save him.
Unlikely as it is, that's what happens. Hanio, upon regaining consciousness in hospital, decides that he's going to put the burden of taking his life on someone else and writes up an ad for his life.
This all happens in the first seven pages of the book and it's where the story takes off. I stopped caring how improbable it was at that point and just went along for the ride.
Various people with various reasons pay Hanio for his life. They hire him to undertake assignments that imperil his life and might kill him.
This was reminiscent of a Haruki Murakami novel: weird and surrealistic and dreamy. I haven't read enough Japanese authors to say if this is characteristic of Japanese fiction but I was surprised by the similarities to Murakami.
It was a fun trip to take with quirky characters and an entertaining storyline. It's unlikeliness ended up adding to its charm.
February 3, 2020
Failed suicide?
Cockroaches?
Gangsters?
Vampires?
Syphilis?
Spies?
Secret organizations?
LSD?
I'm sold.
Cockroaches?
Gangsters?
Vampires?
Syphilis?
Spies?
Secret organizations?
LSD?
I'm sold.
May 19, 2024
This was the most 'fun' Mishima yet, which doesn't make any sense if you read the synopsis. Probably because it is more genre fiction than literary fiction. It was also the first time that a Mishima gave me Murakami vibes. It remains mediocre in his bibliography, but at least it's different.
November 28, 2020
English: Life for Sale
Mishima wrote many very serious novels that revolve around suicide and those who know about his untimely death 50 years ago (he ritually disemboweled himself after a failed military coup) are aware that this topic is central to understanding Mishima's work and personality. But this author also had a wicked sense of humor - and this unruly novella proves it once more. 27-year-old Hanio (young, male, beautiful, successful, ergo: a typical Mishima character) is fed up with the boring mundaness of life and tries to kill himself - but he fails. Now he's even more annoyed and decides to sell his life, and not to the highest bidder, but to everyone who shows up at his door and suggests a price.
And then the book turns into an entertaining, bizarre romp that reads like Mishima is laughing about his own obsessions: The buyers offer lots of money and all missions Hanio is payed to perform fail to kill him. He meets various characters from different walks of life (and death) and his adventures start to gain a Don Quixotesque quality, the windmill he is fighting being his own inability to perish. Will he change his mind or persist in his dark quest?
"Life for Sale" is funny Mishima, twisting Western existentialist writing, espionage drama and novel of ideas into an evil amalgamation, a joyful explosion of wild storytelling. One day I'll be a Mishima completist.
Mishima wrote many very serious novels that revolve around suicide and those who know about his untimely death 50 years ago (he ritually disemboweled himself after a failed military coup) are aware that this topic is central to understanding Mishima's work and personality. But this author also had a wicked sense of humor - and this unruly novella proves it once more. 27-year-old Hanio (young, male, beautiful, successful, ergo: a typical Mishima character) is fed up with the boring mundaness of life and tries to kill himself - but he fails. Now he's even more annoyed and decides to sell his life, and not to the highest bidder, but to everyone who shows up at his door and suggests a price.
And then the book turns into an entertaining, bizarre romp that reads like Mishima is laughing about his own obsessions: The buyers offer lots of money and all missions Hanio is payed to perform fail to kill him. He meets various characters from different walks of life (and death) and his adventures start to gain a Don Quixotesque quality, the windmill he is fighting being his own inability to perish. Will he change his mind or persist in his dark quest?
"Life for Sale" is funny Mishima, twisting Western existentialist writing, espionage drama and novel of ideas into an evil amalgamation, a joyful explosion of wild storytelling. One day I'll be a Mishima completist.
January 22, 2020
This story could have been interesting if the female characters weren't written as either ugly and in love with the lame main character, a sex object, or a murderous psycho.
August 20, 2020
In her famous essay Mishima ou La vision du vide, Marguerite Yourcenar compares the Japanese novelist with a Samurai who opposes in his mind two seminal ideas: the sinister ease of dying against the heroic struggle of living. The intrinsic sense of a dichotomy that has been present in Japan throughout its history and is very much a part of his literary legacy. And Yourcenar goes even further, by considering Yukio Mishima’s ritual suicide in 1970, as “the act of a hero” and his ultimate masterpiece.
Life for Sale is a pulp novel written in 1968. It was published in installments in the magazine Weekly Playboy from May to October of that year. In Japan it is not unusual for a novel to appear in a newspaper or magazine. Junichiro Tanizaki, for example, published his most famous novel The Makioka Sisters in serialized form over two years in the literary magazine Chūōkōron in the nineteen forties, and Eiji Yoshikawa’s celebrated epic novel Musashi appeared in the newspaper Asahi Shimbun between 1935 and 1939.
So I would assume that Life for Sale was a commission for which Mishima was very well payed. And this answers in part the questions that arose when I was reading the first pages. Why would Mishima venture in such a literary genre? Why would he embark in a project so removed from the rest of his work? This question is particularly relevant since he was working at the time in his last masterpiece, the monumental tetralogy The Sea of Fertility. Why invest the time to write such a light novel? And also, why does the English translation appear now, more than fifty year later? The last question is probably answered or explained by the fact that the novel was re-released in 2015 in Japan, and it became a "surprise best-seller" (from an article in The Japan Times, in August, 2019) that was turned into a TV series three years later. The English translation, which reads quite fluently, is by Stephen Dodd.
Suicide had been in Mishima’s mind for most of his life. To decide when and how one dies is considered a luxurious choice in Japan and as Yourcenar points out, a heroic act. In Life for Sale, the protagonist is Hanio Yamada, a 27-year-old office worker unsatisfied with his life, who no longer finds the will or desire to continue living.
In the opening chapter, we find Hanio regaining consciousness after a failed suicide attempt. He had consumed “a large amount of sedative on the last overground train that evening”. But as he realizes he did not succeed, he decides to place an ad in the Classified section of the local newspaper with the enigmatic title “Life for sale”. And thus, the novel takes off in the form of a detective story, with Hanio’s clients feeding chapter after chapter of incredible stories, some of them so bizarre that one wonders how Mishima’s impeccable writing could embrace such an absurd plot.
Things take a little time to sink in, and once we realize that it is precisely this type of narrative (the extravagant taking over the realistic), that fits exactly the needs of the pulp magazine style, that we let go and enjoy the ride. Mishima puts his prodigious talent to work and the result is a very funny and entertaining novel, filled with Kafkaesque situations over fifty short chapters.
One last thought. As I was reading the novel, Haruki Murakami came to mind. I have always thought that Mishima and Murakami are completely different writers. Here, however, they seem to meet in an unexpected way, since they both feed their narrative with Western elements. The idea of course has to do with the light character of this novel, and that is as far as the resemblance goes. Murakami’s world seems to be nourished by the fantastic and the unreal (the metaphysical, some would say); Mishima on the other hand, feeds his fiction with the heroic and the spiritual, representing the deepest Japanese ideals. He is the creator of a unique style of narrative that is deeply rooted in the immense literary tradition of Japan (and as I already mentioned, with Western influence as well), and Murakami, although a good storyteller, seems to be a chameleon that changes from book to book, borrowing from others and struggling constantly to find a convincing voice. In other words, in the hands of Murakami, the present novel would end up being only a mediocre attempt.
Life for sale along with The Frolic of the Beasts and the novella Star, are the three works of Mishima that have been published recently in English.
Life for Sale is a pulp novel written in 1968. It was published in installments in the magazine Weekly Playboy from May to October of that year. In Japan it is not unusual for a novel to appear in a newspaper or magazine. Junichiro Tanizaki, for example, published his most famous novel The Makioka Sisters in serialized form over two years in the literary magazine Chūōkōron in the nineteen forties, and Eiji Yoshikawa’s celebrated epic novel Musashi appeared in the newspaper Asahi Shimbun between 1935 and 1939.
So I would assume that Life for Sale was a commission for which Mishima was very well payed. And this answers in part the questions that arose when I was reading the first pages. Why would Mishima venture in such a literary genre? Why would he embark in a project so removed from the rest of his work? This question is particularly relevant since he was working at the time in his last masterpiece, the monumental tetralogy The Sea of Fertility. Why invest the time to write such a light novel? And also, why does the English translation appear now, more than fifty year later? The last question is probably answered or explained by the fact that the novel was re-released in 2015 in Japan, and it became a "surprise best-seller" (from an article in The Japan Times, in August, 2019) that was turned into a TV series three years later. The English translation, which reads quite fluently, is by Stephen Dodd.
Suicide had been in Mishima’s mind for most of his life. To decide when and how one dies is considered a luxurious choice in Japan and as Yourcenar points out, a heroic act. In Life for Sale, the protagonist is Hanio Yamada, a 27-year-old office worker unsatisfied with his life, who no longer finds the will or desire to continue living.
“Why are people so desperate to live? Isn’t it unnatural that people who have not even been exposed to the danger of death should feel a desire to live?” (Chapter 49)
In the opening chapter, we find Hanio regaining consciousness after a failed suicide attempt. He had consumed “a large amount of sedative on the last overground train that evening”. But as he realizes he did not succeed, he decides to place an ad in the Classified section of the local newspaper with the enigmatic title “Life for sale”. And thus, the novel takes off in the form of a detective story, with Hanio’s clients feeding chapter after chapter of incredible stories, some of them so bizarre that one wonders how Mishima’s impeccable writing could embrace such an absurd plot.
Things take a little time to sink in, and once we realize that it is precisely this type of narrative (the extravagant taking over the realistic), that fits exactly the needs of the pulp magazine style, that we let go and enjoy the ride. Mishima puts his prodigious talent to work and the result is a very funny and entertaining novel, filled with Kafkaesque situations over fifty short chapters.
Just then, his eyes encountered something hideous. On top of the fallen paper was a cockroach, absolutely still. At the very moment he stretched out his hand, the glossy mahogany-colored insect scurried away with extraordinary vitality and lost itself among the printed words.
He picked up the paper nevertheless, placed the page he had been reading on the table and cast his eyes over it again. Suddenly, all the letters he was trying to make out turned into cockroaches. His eyes pursued the letters as they made their escape, their disgustingly shiny dark-red backs in full view.
“So the world boils down to nothing more than this.”
It was a sudden revelation. And it was this insight that led to an overwhelming desire to die.
One last thought. As I was reading the novel, Haruki Murakami came to mind. I have always thought that Mishima and Murakami are completely different writers. Here, however, they seem to meet in an unexpected way, since they both feed their narrative with Western elements. The idea of course has to do with the light character of this novel, and that is as far as the resemblance goes. Murakami’s world seems to be nourished by the fantastic and the unreal (the metaphysical, some would say); Mishima on the other hand, feeds his fiction with the heroic and the spiritual, representing the deepest Japanese ideals. He is the creator of a unique style of narrative that is deeply rooted in the immense literary tradition of Japan (and as I already mentioned, with Western influence as well), and Murakami, although a good storyteller, seems to be a chameleon that changes from book to book, borrowing from others and struggling constantly to find a convincing voice. In other words, in the hands of Murakami, the present novel would end up being only a mediocre attempt.
Life for sale along with The Frolic of the Beasts and the novella Star, are the three works of Mishima that have been published recently in English.
January 12, 2020
Was Mishima embarrassed by this decidedly quirky, goofy little book? Worlds away from his other fiction, this posthumous novel reads like a mystery thriller, with a light-hearted tone, dark themes, and represents a gray-area exploration of the human psyche. Is the main character dissatisfied, or simply mad? Are the oddballs he gets entangled with justified, selfish, or reprehensible?
I am no expert in Mishima's work, but I have read enough of it to notice a preoccupation with death, particularly suicide. This fascination flows through much of his writing, it seems to me, and stems from the fact that he wrote with a purpose, and wished to apply this purpose to his life, to live with meaning, and to stir change in the hearts of people. Death takes on presence in life, stakes a claim, gathers the toil and accumulation of our struggles in order to quantify and weigh our existence. Surely, this is one of the least traditional of his works. Inhabiting the land of Kobo Abe, having departed the safer fictional waters of Tanizaki and Soseki. It was nonetheless an elegant, absurd, enjoyable novel, fanciful in the extreme, dreamlike and memorable. It suffers from deus ex machina and complete randomness at parts, but also acquires quite a bit of charm upon reflection.
The concept of a 'life for sale' may never have been taken so literally as in this work. Hanio creates the advertisement and is met with a surprising amount of success in his venture. But what he learns from his experiment differs from his original goal. Formulaic though it is, the episodic nature of the novel is by turns melodramatic and psychedelic, gruesome and pulpy, cheesy, cartoonish, yet always morally significant.
Scholars may be at a loss to explain how imperative Life for Sale is in World Literature, but it will not fail to entertain.
I am no expert in Mishima's work, but I have read enough of it to notice a preoccupation with death, particularly suicide. This fascination flows through much of his writing, it seems to me, and stems from the fact that he wrote with a purpose, and wished to apply this purpose to his life, to live with meaning, and to stir change in the hearts of people. Death takes on presence in life, stakes a claim, gathers the toil and accumulation of our struggles in order to quantify and weigh our existence. Surely, this is one of the least traditional of his works. Inhabiting the land of Kobo Abe, having departed the safer fictional waters of Tanizaki and Soseki. It was nonetheless an elegant, absurd, enjoyable novel, fanciful in the extreme, dreamlike and memorable. It suffers from deus ex machina and complete randomness at parts, but also acquires quite a bit of charm upon reflection.
The concept of a 'life for sale' may never have been taken so literally as in this work. Hanio creates the advertisement and is met with a surprising amount of success in his venture. But what he learns from his experiment differs from his original goal. Formulaic though it is, the episodic nature of the novel is by turns melodramatic and psychedelic, gruesome and pulpy, cheesy, cartoonish, yet always morally significant.
Scholars may be at a loss to explain how imperative Life for Sale is in World Literature, but it will not fail to entertain.
December 21, 2023
Bir Yukio Mişima kitabı ile burdayım, şükürler olsun! O kadar seviyorum ki Mişima'yı ve edebiyatını, tutkulu kişiliği ve benzersiz karakterini... Ondan yeni bir kitap okumayı beklemediğim bir anda 'Satılık Hayat' sürpriz bir şekilde karşıma çıkınca bir tık kendimden geçtiğimi söylemem lazım. Mişima'nın cesur hayat öyküsü, herkesten farklı olması, radikal düşünme biçimi her zaman ilham kaynağım olmuştur. Keşke bu dünyadan ayrılmayı tercih etmeseydi ve daha uzun süreler yazmış olsaydı, keşke.
'Satılık Hayat'a gelecek olursak, bu roman yazarın destansı serisi 'Bereket Denizi Dörtlemesi'nden önce; 1968 senesinin mayıs ve ekim ayları arasında bir dergiye tefrika olarak yazdığı, aynı yılın aralık ayında da kitap olarak basılan sıradışı eseridir. Gerçi Mişima'nın bütün metinleri sıradışıdır ama buradaki kastım, yazarın genel edebiyatından çok uzakta duran ve onun bibliyografisi içinde farklılaşan bir eser olarak öne çıkmasıdır. Mişima, bu romandan sonra efsane dörtlemesini kaleme alıp, sansasyonel bir şekilde -seppuku ile- hayatına son verince gözler ağır top eserlerine ve onun hayatı algılama şeklini gösteren kitaplarına yönelmiştir. Zannımca o arada biraz kaynamış 'Satılık Hayat'. Fakat son yıllarda keşfedilen bu kitap, güncel okur tarafından sahiplenilmiş; hatta 2018'de Japonya'da tvye bir de dizi olarak uyarlaması yapılmış.
'Satılık Hayat'ta Hanio isimli başkarakterimizin reklam şirketindeki işinden istifa edip, kendi hayatını satmaya karar vermesi sonrası gelişen olayları okuyoruz. Son derece aksiyonlu, yer yer Amerikan filmlerinin senaryolarını anımsatan bir taslak şeklinde ilerleyen fakat tüm ucuzluğuna rağmen satır aralarında Mişima'nın kendine has benzersiz sesini duyabildiğimiz bir metin olarak Mişima'nın şimdiye kadar okuduğumuz bütün eserlerinden farklı bir yerde konumlanıyor 'Satılık Hayat'. Bu yüzden eserin bir 'pulp fiction' olarak pazarlanmasına şaşmamak gerek. Hayatı sürekli alınılıp, ölümlerden dönen karakterimiz Hanio ile büyük bir aksiyonun içerisinde buluruz kendimizi. Son derece çılgın ve alışık olduğumuz Japonya imgelemelerinin dışında bir evren sunar bize Mişima burada. Vampir de çıkar karşımıza, ajanlar da, gizli servisler de, hippiler de... Günümüz Japon Edebiyatında sıkça karşımıza çıkan tarzda ve izleklerde bir romanı Mişima'ya 1968'de yazdıran motivasyon neydi, benim en çok merak ettiğim şey bu oldu roman boyunca. Sayfa 184'teki şu cümleler ise merakıma verilmiş şahane bir cevap gibiydi: "Ne sıkıcı, ne sıkıcı! Şöyle eğlenceli bir şeyler yok mu? diyordu on milyon insan göz göze geldiklerinde selamlaşmak yerine. Bir büyük kentin muazzam hüsranı, tatminsizliği, früstrasyonu işlemişti bu sözlere. Orada burada planktonlar misali kaynaşan gecenin gençleri. Hayatın, yani insan hayatının anlamsızlığı. Tutkuların tükenmişliği... Çiğnerken tatları bir anda yok olup gidince tüh diye tükürüp yolun kenarına attığımız sakızlar misali güvenilmezlikleri sevinçlerimiz ve zevklerimizin...Baştan çıkarmanın bolca olduğu fakat tatminin olmadığı şu büyük kent..." Ne kadar Mişimaca bir söylenme, şikayetlenme hali değil mi? O yüzden onun edebiyatını yaparken boş atmadığını, muazzam bir hiciv ortaya koyduğunu gözden kaçırmamak lazım.
Geleneksel Japonya'nın erdemleri, onurlu savaşçılar, etik sahibi bireyler, modernite ile mücadele veren özgür ruhlar yok bu romanda. Modernitenin yozlaştırdığı bir toplumun içinde, hayatının değersizliğini bir şova dönüştüren başına buyruk bir bireyin, bir isyancının eğlenceli ama düşündürten, Amerikanca bir öyküsü var. Sayfa 233'te bir taşra polisinin ağzına yerleştirdiği şu cümleler farklı ve bu modern dünya içerisinde kendine bir yer bulamayan aşkın ruhlara genel geçer bakışı çok güzel özetliyor. Şöyle diyor o cümlelerde Mişima polisin ağzından: "Hayatını satmak sana kalmış. Ceza kanununda yasaklanmış bir fiil değil sonuçta. İşbu halde suçlu olarak görülecek şahış birinin hayatını satın alan ve ondan kendi hain emelleri doğrultusunda istifade eden kişidir. Hayatını satan lavuk suçlu falan değildir. Sadece bir insan müsveddesidir, yeri de çöp tenekesidir. Olay bu kadar basit." İnsan müsveddesi tanımlaması benzersiz, dikkat çekerim.
Yorumu bitirmeden çeviriden de bahsetmek istiyorum. Devrim Çetin Güven o kadar güzel bir çeviri armağan etmiş ki bize, nasıl teşekkür etsek, nasıl saygılarımızı sunsak bilmiyorum. Kobo Abe'nin yine Devrim Çetin tarafından Türkçeleştirilen, Sel Yayıncılık'tan çıkan 'Kutu Adam'ı olağanüstü bir çeviridir. Keza Tanizaki'nin 'Bazıları Isırgan Sever' çevirisi de hayranlık uyandırıcıdır. Bu çeviriler gibi 'Satılık Hayat' da hakikaten okurken keyif veren kusursuzlukta karşımızda. Çevirinin ve çevirmenin önemini gösteren nitelikte bir örnek olmuş, teşekkürler Sevgili Devrim Çetin Güven. Mutlaka hepsine yer açın.
Demem o ki Mişima yine bildiğimiz Mişima ama bu sefer bambaşka bir biçim ve içerikte derdini anlatıyor. İyi ki de anlatıyor, oh dedim be, oh... Darısı çevrilmeyen diğer kitaplarının başına diyelim. İnsan müsveddelerine selam olsun.
'Satılık Hayat'a gelecek olursak, bu roman yazarın destansı serisi 'Bereket Denizi Dörtlemesi'nden önce; 1968 senesinin mayıs ve ekim ayları arasında bir dergiye tefrika olarak yazdığı, aynı yılın aralık ayında da kitap olarak basılan sıradışı eseridir. Gerçi Mişima'nın bütün metinleri sıradışıdır ama buradaki kastım, yazarın genel edebiyatından çok uzakta duran ve onun bibliyografisi içinde farklılaşan bir eser olarak öne çıkmasıdır. Mişima, bu romandan sonra efsane dörtlemesini kaleme alıp, sansasyonel bir şekilde -seppuku ile- hayatına son verince gözler ağır top eserlerine ve onun hayatı algılama şeklini gösteren kitaplarına yönelmiştir. Zannımca o arada biraz kaynamış 'Satılık Hayat'. Fakat son yıllarda keşfedilen bu kitap, güncel okur tarafından sahiplenilmiş; hatta 2018'de Japonya'da tvye bir de dizi olarak uyarlaması yapılmış.
'Satılık Hayat'ta Hanio isimli başkarakterimizin reklam şirketindeki işinden istifa edip, kendi hayatını satmaya karar vermesi sonrası gelişen olayları okuyoruz. Son derece aksiyonlu, yer yer Amerikan filmlerinin senaryolarını anımsatan bir taslak şeklinde ilerleyen fakat tüm ucuzluğuna rağmen satır aralarında Mişima'nın kendine has benzersiz sesini duyabildiğimiz bir metin olarak Mişima'nın şimdiye kadar okuduğumuz bütün eserlerinden farklı bir yerde konumlanıyor 'Satılık Hayat'. Bu yüzden eserin bir 'pulp fiction' olarak pazarlanmasına şaşmamak gerek. Hayatı sürekli alınılıp, ölümlerden dönen karakterimiz Hanio ile büyük bir aksiyonun içerisinde buluruz kendimizi. Son derece çılgın ve alışık olduğumuz Japonya imgelemelerinin dışında bir evren sunar bize Mişima burada. Vampir de çıkar karşımıza, ajanlar da, gizli servisler de, hippiler de... Günümüz Japon Edebiyatında sıkça karşımıza çıkan tarzda ve izleklerde bir romanı Mişima'ya 1968'de yazdıran motivasyon neydi, benim en çok merak ettiğim şey bu oldu roman boyunca. Sayfa 184'teki şu cümleler ise merakıma verilmiş şahane bir cevap gibiydi: "Ne sıkıcı, ne sıkıcı! Şöyle eğlenceli bir şeyler yok mu? diyordu on milyon insan göz göze geldiklerinde selamlaşmak yerine. Bir büyük kentin muazzam hüsranı, tatminsizliği, früstrasyonu işlemişti bu sözlere. Orada burada planktonlar misali kaynaşan gecenin gençleri. Hayatın, yani insan hayatının anlamsızlığı. Tutkuların tükenmişliği... Çiğnerken tatları bir anda yok olup gidince tüh diye tükürüp yolun kenarına attığımız sakızlar misali güvenilmezlikleri sevinçlerimiz ve zevklerimizin...Baştan çıkarmanın bolca olduğu fakat tatminin olmadığı şu büyük kent..." Ne kadar Mişimaca bir söylenme, şikayetlenme hali değil mi? O yüzden onun edebiyatını yaparken boş atmadığını, muazzam bir hiciv ortaya koyduğunu gözden kaçırmamak lazım.
Geleneksel Japonya'nın erdemleri, onurlu savaşçılar, etik sahibi bireyler, modernite ile mücadele veren özgür ruhlar yok bu romanda. Modernitenin yozlaştırdığı bir toplumun içinde, hayatının değersizliğini bir şova dönüştüren başına buyruk bir bireyin, bir isyancının eğlenceli ama düşündürten, Amerikanca bir öyküsü var. Sayfa 233'te bir taşra polisinin ağzına yerleştirdiği şu cümleler farklı ve bu modern dünya içerisinde kendine bir yer bulamayan aşkın ruhlara genel geçer bakışı çok güzel özetliyor. Şöyle diyor o cümlelerde Mişima polisin ağzından: "Hayatını satmak sana kalmış. Ceza kanununda yasaklanmış bir fiil değil sonuçta. İşbu halde suçlu olarak görülecek şahış birinin hayatını satın alan ve ondan kendi hain emelleri doğrultusunda istifade eden kişidir. Hayatını satan lavuk suçlu falan değildir. Sadece bir insan müsveddesidir, yeri de çöp tenekesidir. Olay bu kadar basit." İnsan müsveddesi tanımlaması benzersiz, dikkat çekerim.
Yorumu bitirmeden çeviriden de bahsetmek istiyorum. Devrim Çetin Güven o kadar güzel bir çeviri armağan etmiş ki bize, nasıl teşekkür etsek, nasıl saygılarımızı sunsak bilmiyorum. Kobo Abe'nin yine Devrim Çetin tarafından Türkçeleştirilen, Sel Yayıncılık'tan çıkan 'Kutu Adam'ı olağanüstü bir çeviridir. Keza Tanizaki'nin 'Bazıları Isırgan Sever' çevirisi de hayranlık uyandırıcıdır. Bu çeviriler gibi 'Satılık Hayat' da hakikaten okurken keyif veren kusursuzlukta karşımızda. Çevirinin ve çevirmenin önemini gösteren nitelikte bir örnek olmuş, teşekkürler Sevgili Devrim Çetin Güven. Mutlaka hepsine yer açın.
Demem o ki Mişima yine bildiğimiz Mişima ama bu sefer bambaşka bir biçim ve içerikte derdini anlatıyor. İyi ki de anlatıyor, oh dedim be, oh... Darısı çevrilmeyen diğer kitaplarının başına diyelim. İnsan müsveddelerine selam olsun.
December 27, 2022
Yukio Mishima was famously (and astonishingly) prolific. This novel was originally published in 1968 — that is, just before the publication of Mishima's tetralogy, and only 2 years before his spectacular death in 1970. With the benefit of hindsight, one must look at this short satirical novel (about a failed suicide) in view of the tetralogy to come (which is much too full of young men killing themselves) and then Mishima's own ritualized self-annihilation.
Most of Mishima's work is still not available in English. However, in the last few years, three novels that I know of have been translated, and this is the third I have read (the other two are "Star" and "The Frolic of the Beasts").
"Life For Sale" is at this moment my favourite of the three. It is funny, satirical, wacky, and only a little philosophical about living, the desire for life, and the impulse to destroy oneself. I looked at it as a kind of key to unlock meaning from the subsequent novels. There is an emerald in this novel, a fake jewel, which is used to decode encrypted telegrams at the Embassy for "Country A". This novel is like that fake emerald, a kind of prism through which one can view the coded mysteries of the final years of Mishima's life.
Five stars because I laughed out loud.
Most of Mishima's work is still not available in English. However, in the last few years, three novels that I know of have been translated, and this is the third I have read (the other two are "Star" and "The Frolic of the Beasts").
"Life For Sale" is at this moment my favourite of the three. It is funny, satirical, wacky, and only a little philosophical about living, the desire for life, and the impulse to destroy oneself. I looked at it as a kind of key to unlock meaning from the subsequent novels. There is an emerald in this novel, a fake jewel, which is used to decode encrypted telegrams at the Embassy for "Country A". This novel is like that fake emerald, a kind of prism through which one can view the coded mysteries of the final years of Mishima's life.
Five stars because I laughed out loud.
July 27, 2022
Damn this really sucked!
I'm well aware that this is unlike Mishima's wider works and a distinctly pulpy entry, but it also feels like baby's first pulp novel at the same time and it's clear the guy was out of his depth.
Where to even start.. the protagonist is a self-serving male wish fulfilment type with all of Mishima's right wing views BUT he gets to sleep with lots of babes which a trad conservative couldn't allow himself to do IRL. There are several oversights in the book that outright ignore inconsistencies or weird plot moments that should rationally be acknowledged. And yes, I know it's a pulp novel, but goddamn some of the presentation here is forced as hell, and it's definitely not down to the translation. The base information presented by Mishima feels awkward. Some of this reads like he got his hands on an almanac covering a random subject and found ways to shoehorn those facts into his story, while other bits veer off in tangents that contradict what we've learned about characters or the present moods in the spaces we see here.
But the biggest stinker dropped in this work is the half-assed philosophy behind it all. Whether or not Mishima truly cares for engaging with meaninglessness sincerely, it's all done in such a cowardly way that it reads like a preacher trying to give a lesson to young kids about finding value in something higher. Our protagonist, Hanio, engages with meaninglessness just enough to have all the sex a repressed conservative could ever want, but never enough to dismiss the family unit or question gender norms or show sympathy to hippies who he holds as being below him in his weird hierarchy of who's REALLY meaningless. If the point is you can never get away from meaning then it absolutely did not go far enough to explore this.
The idea of doing a pulp novel to engage with an age-old existential question is genuinely a brilliant concept for a story. But the fact that all it leads to is a stoic protagonist who just sleeps around a lot is so flat and boring. The most popular review here mentions the book's failure to be intellectually engaging in a throwaway line amidst high praise, but honestly this feature taints the entire novel from beginning to end with some of the most 'first week of uni' mediocre theory discourse I've ever seen.
Maybe people who find Jordan Peterson quotes about cleaning your room deep as shit might like this, but for anyone with half a brain it's probs not your cup of tea.
PS - kind of a given but Mishima’s brain turns into a circus monkey hitting cymbals and doing backflips when it comes to writing women. Guy is incapable of describing one without centring her whole being and essence on the round bumps on her chest.
I'm well aware that this is unlike Mishima's wider works and a distinctly pulpy entry, but it also feels like baby's first pulp novel at the same time and it's clear the guy was out of his depth.
Where to even start.. the protagonist is a self-serving male wish fulfilment type with all of Mishima's right wing views BUT he gets to sleep with lots of babes which a trad conservative couldn't allow himself to do IRL. There are several oversights in the book that outright ignore inconsistencies or weird plot moments that should rationally be acknowledged. And yes, I know it's a pulp novel, but goddamn some of the presentation here is forced as hell, and it's definitely not down to the translation. The base information presented by Mishima feels awkward. Some of this reads like he got his hands on an almanac covering a random subject and found ways to shoehorn those facts into his story, while other bits veer off in tangents that contradict what we've learned about characters or the present moods in the spaces we see here.
But the biggest stinker dropped in this work is the half-assed philosophy behind it all. Whether or not Mishima truly cares for engaging with meaninglessness sincerely, it's all done in such a cowardly way that it reads like a preacher trying to give a lesson to young kids about finding value in something higher. Our protagonist, Hanio, engages with meaninglessness just enough to have all the sex a repressed conservative could ever want, but never enough to dismiss the family unit or question gender norms or show sympathy to hippies who he holds as being below him in his weird hierarchy of who's REALLY meaningless. If the point is you can never get away from meaning then it absolutely did not go far enough to explore this.
The idea of doing a pulp novel to engage with an age-old existential question is genuinely a brilliant concept for a story. But the fact that all it leads to is a stoic protagonist who just sleeps around a lot is so flat and boring. The most popular review here mentions the book's failure to be intellectually engaging in a throwaway line amidst high praise, but honestly this feature taints the entire novel from beginning to end with some of the most 'first week of uni' mediocre theory discourse I've ever seen.
Maybe people who find Jordan Peterson quotes about cleaning your room deep as shit might like this, but for anyone with half a brain it's probs not your cup of tea.
PS - kind of a given but Mishima’s brain turns into a circus monkey hitting cymbals and doing backflips when it comes to writing women. Guy is incapable of describing one without centring her whole being and essence on the round bumps on her chest.
October 29, 2019
I think I read everything that is translated into English by Yukio Mishima. Recently three more works came out, which means the Mishima estate is allowing more translations of his excellent writing. "Life for Sale" is very much a pulp-style story. It reminds me in of parts of the books by Edogawa Rampo. Not in its violence, but its pulp-style of prose writing. And this is very much a page-turner, with some absurdity attached to the narrative. Mishima wrote this book in 1968, almost exactly two years before he committed suicide. There are great lightness and humor, but there are substantial traces of the Mishima aesthetic throughout the novel.
The book takes place during the student riots in Shinjuku, and the 'spring' of the counter-culture in Japan. Mishima was very much the opposite of those students, yet, I suspect he admired them as well. The same with the Hippies taking LSD. Anything going against convention was the sugar in Mishima's tea. In 1968, this was the height of his right-wing stance, as well as having his private army. On the other hand, Terayama, the great writer, filmmaker, and playwright, was making his mark in Japan as a combination of Artaud and Fellini.
The story is about a man who tried to commit suicide for no real reason; he survives. He then decides to sell his life to whoever comes to his apartment. Money is not an issue, but a lot comes his way. I will say no more because of the fun of reading this book are the twists and turns. I think some will think of "Life for Sale" as a minor work, but for me, it's my favorite Mishima.
The book takes place during the student riots in Shinjuku, and the 'spring' of the counter-culture in Japan. Mishima was very much the opposite of those students, yet, I suspect he admired them as well. The same with the Hippies taking LSD. Anything going against convention was the sugar in Mishima's tea. In 1968, this was the height of his right-wing stance, as well as having his private army. On the other hand, Terayama, the great writer, filmmaker, and playwright, was making his mark in Japan as a combination of Artaud and Fellini.
The story is about a man who tried to commit suicide for no real reason; he survives. He then decides to sell his life to whoever comes to his apartment. Money is not an issue, but a lot comes his way. I will say no more because of the fun of reading this book are the twists and turns. I think some will think of "Life for Sale" as a minor work, but for me, it's my favorite Mishima.
October 25, 2021
‘He simply could not fathom why people got married and ended up trapped for life, or became company employees working at the beck and call of others. Better to spend all his money. If he found himself penniless, suicide was always there as an option.’
4.5 – but I’m in the mood to round that off to a 5. Vampires and LSD??? Why wasn’t that in the blurbs? I would have read it immediately. I was surprised by how ‘modern’ this novel felt compared to his more famous ones, so I looked it up. This was written/published(?) only a few years before his death – which this was very possibly set in the 60s? The only reason I felt hesitant to give it a full 5-star rating was because of the ending, but after letting it all sit and settle for a while – I’m starting to really appreciate the unsatisfying end – it makes so much sense now why Mishima would do that. It complements the whole story as a whole. But even so, I’ve got a feeling that more hardcore Mishima fans will not find this particular Mishima novel appealing. I’ve not read his tetralogy so I can’t compare, but it’s definitely nothing like The Temple of the Golden Pavilion.
So far, I’ve read 3 (very different) Mishima novels, and I still don’t know which I like best. The three of them are like three separate grand love affairs – and it would make them so much less legendary if one could easily prefer one over the other. Mishima is a fucking fantastic writer. I thought Dazai was my kind of lad, but reading this novel reminded me a lot of Dazai’s No Longer Human, except I enjoyed this one so much more. So much dark comedy in Mishima’s. And I’m always weak for that sort of writing. A proper amount of dialogues that reek of ‘absurdism’ – and I just love. I’ve also realised that Mishima is a very meticulous writer. Every chapter felt so ‘neat’ and well-structured – the transition is always so smooth – which adds to the animated, vibrant, cinematic quality that his novels possess. So much to talk/write about. Will post a big review later.
‘There is just one crumb of comfort, however. Shinjuku may have become her Saturday night haunt and she might not breeze back home until the morning, but she’s always alone when she returns. For some reason, she can’t get close to anyone, and as a result she’s never brought a single low-life friend to the house. We are eternally grateful for that.’
‘As I grew up, whenever I found myself having to eat a beef stew or some such dish that contained carrots, I would be overcome with disgust—it was worse than peering into the depths of a toilet bowl. And if I came across that novel Poil de carotte—Carrot Head—by Jules Renard on the shelves of a bookshop, the author’s insensitivity would astonish me.’
‘The thought that his own life was about to cease cleansed his heart, the way peppermint cleanses the mouth.’
August 10, 2020
126th book of 2020.
It was very hot yesterday here in England, which, on the whole, we are not very used to. I was at my friend's flat with another friend, both of whom I had lived with at University. We had not seen each other in a long while. As one of my friends played some bizarre video game where you play as a naughty goose terrorising a town I picked up this book, which he had brought down for me to borrow. In the next three and a half hours it took him to complete the said goose game, I had read all but thirty pages of this. It would have been far nicer to have read the whole thing and handed it right back to him to take home, though.
This novel is Mishima just stretching his creative legs. It's a pulp novel, and it is completely different from anything else he has written. The writing is, for Mishima, poor and sloppy and the plot is as bizarre as the goose game. Because it was originally serialised 21 times in Japan's Weekly Playboy you can sense the issues it must have gone through; the novel is essentially made up of episodes or vignettes, almost like adventures within the main story. The episodic structure makes for a repetitive read, though the plot is certainly different, with vampires, LSD, secret organisations, rants about carrots, suicide and sex. It is a hodgepodge of Camus' The Stranger and a Raymond Chandler novel. The slight glimmers of philosophy that come through the ridiculous narrative seem forced and misplaced. Compared to something like Mishima's Spring Snow or The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, this book is weak. It's a mediocre fun read though, and suitable for reading with any form of goose-terrorising game in the background.
It was very hot yesterday here in England, which, on the whole, we are not very used to. I was at my friend's flat with another friend, both of whom I had lived with at University. We had not seen each other in a long while. As one of my friends played some bizarre video game where you play as a naughty goose terrorising a town I picked up this book, which he had brought down for me to borrow. In the next three and a half hours it took him to complete the said goose game, I had read all but thirty pages of this. It would have been far nicer to have read the whole thing and handed it right back to him to take home, though.
This novel is Mishima just stretching his creative legs. It's a pulp novel, and it is completely different from anything else he has written. The writing is, for Mishima, poor and sloppy and the plot is as bizarre as the goose game. Because it was originally serialised 21 times in Japan's Weekly Playboy you can sense the issues it must have gone through; the novel is essentially made up of episodes or vignettes, almost like adventures within the main story. The episodic structure makes for a repetitive read, though the plot is certainly different, with vampires, LSD, secret organisations, rants about carrots, suicide and sex. It is a hodgepodge of Camus' The Stranger and a Raymond Chandler novel. The slight glimmers of philosophy that come through the ridiculous narrative seem forced and misplaced. Compared to something like Mishima's Spring Snow or The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, this book is weak. It's a mediocre fun read though, and suitable for reading with any form of goose-terrorising game in the background.
May 20, 2020
“A dead body reminds me a bit of a bottle of whisky. If you drop the bottle and it cracks, what’s inside pours out. It’s only natural.”
“When ten million people come together, they voice not pleasantries but profound frustration with this great city. Youngsters of the night wriggle in their multitudes like swathes of plankton. The insignificance of human life. Passion extinguished. The flavor of pleasure and anticipation lost, like gum when you chew it to death. What else can you do in the end but spit it onto the roadside?”
When one starts “Life for Sale” by Mishima Yukio, it is entirely understandable to be taken aback by its seemingly incongruent plot and style (perhaps less so if you have seen photos of Mishima’s outlandish home with its French renaissance chairs, rococo furnishings, and 60’s modern trappings).
With its seedy overseas gangsters, tawdry sex, drug addicts and vampires(!), it is easy to think you’ve somehow taken a wrong turn into a Raymond Chandler trying his hand at an Ann Rice story, rather than the somewhat rarified air and prose of a Mishima novel.
You would however be mistaken.
For under all the lunacy and dime store detective tropes Mishima trots out here, underneath it all lies many of the same themes that populate all of Mishima stories. Loneliness, meditations on death, and the purpose of one’s existence.
Yes, the story of our narrator taking out an ad in the newspaper to sell his life to somehow who can dispose of it as they choose, is insane and implausible. However Mishima asks, is it any more insane to believe that you have syphilis without ever having had sex, or that you are a vampire, than to live the lives we construct for ourselves?
Marriage, children, unsatisfying jobs, all of these are self constructed prisons in which we sell off pieces of our lives with each new brick in its wall. Taking the agency to sell your life as our narrator does is an acknowledgement that is the only act in which we have some agency. Yes, there is a high probability he will die, but he will die on his terms and is that really any worse than waiting for the slow creeping death of our daily existence?
That our narrator after surviving several near death experiences begins to appreciate life however doesn’t mean he appreciates all life. Rather he, and by extension Mishima, is contemptuous of people who live safe existences where their safety is never threatened. In short, one cannot appreciate life until you have experienced the possibility of death.
This last concept is the quintessential Mishima theme. When our narrator thinks to himself:
“The world he inhabited lacked all sadness or joy, nothing was clearly defined in it. A kind of meaninglessness infused his life both day and night, like the soft glow from indirect light.”
“Until now, it had never occurred to him that his own actions were linked together like a series of interconnected rings. He saw those times that he put his life on sale as a succession of one-off events: like throwing one bunch of flowers after another into the river. The flowers might be carried away in the water, they might sink, they might float all the way down to the sea. He never dreamt they would be gathered up and end up on display together in some vase.”
Mishima is reflecting on having seen Japan unite as a nation with single minded purpose and meaning behind the emperor, and by extensions the nation, during the war. Japan was the vase and his countrymen the flowers. With the end of the war, this sense of higher purpose was lost and as the flowers scattered, Japan began a slow descent into consumerism and aimlessness. Mishima would spend the last 25 years of his life lamenting this, and in an attempt to avert this slide, advocated a return to militarism (even constructing his own private army of teenage boys, a discussion for another day) to fill what he perceived as Japan’s spiritual vacuum.
While Mishima and I differ on the value of death as a motivator of life, particularly in a military context, there is much to be said for the idea that living without purpose is not really living at all. Thinking you are a vampire may be insane, but unlike large segments of the public, you at least have a pretty well defined raison d'être.
August 3, 2018
3.5. Al descubrir la publicación en España de este libro de Mishima, me emocioné muchísimo. Desconocía del todo su existencia. Y necesité hacerme con él enseguida. Lo curioso es que aún teniendo una de las tramas más interesantes, ha acabado siendo el más flojito de los que he leído de él, por ahora. Flojo no quiere decir malo, porque de hecho me ha gustado, pero en menor medida.
La historia nos narra la vida de Hanio, que tras un intento fallido de suicidio, decide poner su vida en venta. Los diferentes personajes que pasaran por la vida de Hanio tratando de adquirir su vida(un anciano celoso, una vampira, un jefe de una embajada,...) le pondrán en una serie de situaciones que lo llevarán a empezar a apreciar la vida otra vez. O más bien recuperará ese miedo por la muerte.
Lo interesante es que bajo la trama sencilla y divertida, Mishima nos habla de muchas cosas recurrentes dentro de sus obras. La curiosidad por la muerte, la sexualidad, la obsesión por el cuerpo, el desprecio a la sociedad de su época, el rechazo a costumbres occidentales. De alguna manera, permite ver con más claridad que otras veces esas inseguridades y problemas que tenía el autor con su orientación sexual y con el mundo que le rodeaba.
Otra cosa interesante es la narración, mucho más ligera que en la mayoría de sus libros. Se lee de un tirón y es bastante divertida. Es una rareza dentro de la obra de Mishima. Quizás el problema principal es que se queda un poco descafeinada a mitad y de ahí que no haya llegado a las 4 estrellas.
Pero es innegable que Mishima es un genio y que sus novelas siempre tienen un trasfondo interesantísimo.
La historia nos narra la vida de Hanio, que tras un intento fallido de suicidio, decide poner su vida en venta. Los diferentes personajes que pasaran por la vida de Hanio tratando de adquirir su vida(un anciano celoso, una vampira, un jefe de una embajada,...) le pondrán en una serie de situaciones que lo llevarán a empezar a apreciar la vida otra vez. O más bien recuperará ese miedo por la muerte.
Lo interesante es que bajo la trama sencilla y divertida, Mishima nos habla de muchas cosas recurrentes dentro de sus obras. La curiosidad por la muerte, la sexualidad, la obsesión por el cuerpo, el desprecio a la sociedad de su época, el rechazo a costumbres occidentales. De alguna manera, permite ver con más claridad que otras veces esas inseguridades y problemas que tenía el autor con su orientación sexual y con el mundo que le rodeaba.
Otra cosa interesante es la narración, mucho más ligera que en la mayoría de sus libros. Se lee de un tirón y es bastante divertida. Es una rareza dentro de la obra de Mishima. Quizás el problema principal es que se queda un poco descafeinada a mitad y de ahí que no haya llegado a las 4 estrellas.
Pero es innegable que Mishima es un genio y que sus novelas siempre tienen un trasfondo interesantísimo.
December 20, 2023
Hanio Yamada bir gazeteye iş bulma amacıyla şöyle bir ilan verir :
‘Satılık Hayat
Hayatımı satıyorum. Benden dilediğiniz amaç için gönlünüzce istifade edebilirsiniz. 27 yaşında bir erkeğim. Mahremiyetinizin ve kişisel bilgilerinizin korunması teminatım altındadır.’
Bir müşterinin gelmesi hayatının kaybı demek olan bu işte Hanio’nun başına beklenmedik şeyler gelir. Vazgeçtiği hayatının onu bırakası yoktur belki de..
.
Yukio Mişima’nın 21 Mayıs-8 Ekim 1968’de Weekly Playboy dergisinde tefrika edilen eseri Satılık Hayat. Bildiğimiz Mişimalar’dan oldukça farklı bir dili ve kurguya sahip bu hikayede, Hanio karakterinin ölüme yakınlığı ve uzaklığını okurken, arka planda İkinci Dünya Savaşı sonrası değişen Japonya’yı görüyoruz. Amerika’nın gerek dile gerek günlük pratiklere etkisini, ekonomideki köklü değişiklikleri, Japonya’nın giderek dışa açılmasını satır aralarından yakalıyoruz.
.
Kara mizah, kovalama, hiciv bir arada. Kitap kapağında Mişima yazmasa şüpheye düşmek de mümkün:) Kobo Abe’yi anımsadığım yerler de oldu.. Satılık Hayat’taki ölüm arzusu ve hayattan kaçamayış, güzel olana düşkünlük ise Mişima imzalarından~
.
Devrim Çetin Güven çevirisi (dipnotlar çok iyi olmasına rağmen, ‘ayol/..ya’ kimi kelimelerin fazlalığı göze çarpıyor), Hasui Kawase kapak görseliyle ~
‘Satılık Hayat
Hayatımı satıyorum. Benden dilediğiniz amaç için gönlünüzce istifade edebilirsiniz. 27 yaşında bir erkeğim. Mahremiyetinizin ve kişisel bilgilerinizin korunması teminatım altındadır.’
Bir müşterinin gelmesi hayatının kaybı demek olan bu işte Hanio’nun başına beklenmedik şeyler gelir. Vazgeçtiği hayatının onu bırakası yoktur belki de..
.
Yukio Mişima’nın 21 Mayıs-8 Ekim 1968’de Weekly Playboy dergisinde tefrika edilen eseri Satılık Hayat. Bildiğimiz Mişimalar’dan oldukça farklı bir dili ve kurguya sahip bu hikayede, Hanio karakterinin ölüme yakınlığı ve uzaklığını okurken, arka planda İkinci Dünya Savaşı sonrası değişen Japonya’yı görüyoruz. Amerika’nın gerek dile gerek günlük pratiklere etkisini, ekonomideki köklü değişiklikleri, Japonya’nın giderek dışa açılmasını satır aralarından yakalıyoruz.
.
Kara mizah, kovalama, hiciv bir arada. Kitap kapağında Mişima yazmasa şüpheye düşmek de mümkün:) Kobo Abe’yi anımsadığım yerler de oldu.. Satılık Hayat’taki ölüm arzusu ve hayattan kaçamayış, güzel olana düşkünlük ise Mişima imzalarından~
.
Devrim Çetin Güven çevirisi (dipnotlar çok iyi olmasına rağmen, ‘ayol/..ya’ kimi kelimelerin fazlalığı göze çarpıyor), Hasui Kawase kapak görseliyle ~
April 23, 2020
for now (with more to come, hopefully tomorrow) --just initial thoughts:
1) don't be put off by the absurdity, because in large part the book looks at the fallout from the main character wondering how it is possible to live with the absurdities of life in a meaningless, modern world and
2) as much as it deviates from the author's usual norm, it is still Mishima -- nihilism, unspoken masks, and all
Now, if someone would only translate Kyoko's House ... sigh
more soon.
1) don't be put off by the absurdity, because in large part the book looks at the fallout from the main character wondering how it is possible to live with the absurdities of life in a meaningless, modern world and
2) as much as it deviates from the author's usual norm, it is still Mishima -- nihilism, unspoken masks, and all
Now, if someone would only translate Kyoko's House ... sigh
more soon.
June 29, 2024
i don’t know if Chuck Palahniuk read this novel, but that’s what i thought about when reading this book. the main character works in an advertising agency, was engaged in copywriting, was freaked out by the monotony and uselessness of working for a corporation and quit for nowhere (rings a bell? except that price tags from ikea are not mentioned heh)
i want to put it out there that this does have suicidal tendencies, though not in a way that we usually think of when hearing ‘suicide’. its not propaganda literature that seeks to support yet another failed businessman/blogger/millionaire who has decided that everything is over in his life and that he needs to leave as “beautifully” as possible.
Hanio Yamada has nothing that he can hold on to in this life—no family, no love, no hobbies and no pets apart from a toy mouse. so as any person would at that point he decided to take his life but failed miserably. and then again. if you think that “survivor syndrome” will work for him, after which he will fall in love with life and come to his senses, then... i hasten to surprise you. he came up with an interesting ‘game’ to slightly increase the stakes of his possible death—he places an advertisement in the newspaper that he is selling himself to someone who is willing to pay for his life. it can be disposed of at the discretion of the buyer, and sent to certain death. he is not against such a proposal, and is ready to consider any order, since money does not interest him, and is more a symbol of concluding a deal than the actual currency of the agreement.
and after that, a wide variety of clientele turns to him—a jealous husband, a nymphomaniac heiress, embassy intelligence agents who need help investigating the case of poisoned carrots, and even a real vampire. instead of simply dying, Hanio Yamada finds himself embroiled in a global conspiracy.
maybe this is an irony over a world in which a person can calmly post such an offer for which there will be buyers? A LOT of buyers? i don't know. the Japanese mentality and thinking are different from ours, and the author was a man of a different era, which passed away with post-war Japan. modern residents of this country differ in thinking even from their own ancestors.
i saw a person who buried himself during his lifetime. not only did he try to commit suicide, but when this did not work out for him, he decided to make a kind of attraction out of his existence—who would offer him a more interesting and bright way to escape from this reality.
i want to put it out there that this does have suicidal tendencies, though not in a way that we usually think of when hearing ‘suicide’. its not propaganda literature that seeks to support yet another failed businessman/blogger/millionaire who has decided that everything is over in his life and that he needs to leave as “beautifully” as possible.
Hanio Yamada has nothing that he can hold on to in this life—no family, no love, no hobbies and no pets apart from a toy mouse. so as any person would at that point he decided to take his life but failed miserably. and then again. if you think that “survivor syndrome” will work for him, after which he will fall in love with life and come to his senses, then... i hasten to surprise you. he came up with an interesting ‘game’ to slightly increase the stakes of his possible death—he places an advertisement in the newspaper that he is selling himself to someone who is willing to pay for his life. it can be disposed of at the discretion of the buyer, and sent to certain death. he is not against such a proposal, and is ready to consider any order, since money does not interest him, and is more a symbol of concluding a deal than the actual currency of the agreement.
and after that, a wide variety of clientele turns to him—a jealous husband, a nymphomaniac heiress, embassy intelligence agents who need help investigating the case of poisoned carrots, and even a real vampire. instead of simply dying, Hanio Yamada finds himself embroiled in a global conspiracy.
maybe this is an irony over a world in which a person can calmly post such an offer for which there will be buyers? A LOT of buyers? i don't know. the Japanese mentality and thinking are different from ours, and the author was a man of a different era, which passed away with post-war Japan. modern residents of this country differ in thinking even from their own ancestors.
i saw a person who buried himself during his lifetime. not only did he try to commit suicide, but when this did not work out for him, he decided to make a kind of attraction out of his existence—who would offer him a more interesting and bright way to escape from this reality.
September 18, 2023
"Vida à Venda" de Yukio Mishima é um romance cativante e provocador que explora temas como identidade, mortalidade e a busca por uma existência significativa.
A história gira em torno de Hanio Yamada, um homem que decide colocar sua vida à venda, buscando aventura e incerteza em vez de uma existência monótona. À medida que ele embarca em uma série de contratos bizarros e perigosos, a narrativa toma reviravoltas inesperadas.
Embora a história possa ser surreal e não convencional em alguns momentos, ela serve como uma exploração provocativa da condição humana.
Foi o primeira obra de Yukio Mishima que li e recomendo ler este livro, sem dúvida foi uma bela surpresa e irei com certeza ler mais obras deste autor japonês.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A história gira em torno de Hanio Yamada, um homem que decide colocar sua vida à venda, buscando aventura e incerteza em vez de uma existência monótona. À medida que ele embarca em uma série de contratos bizarros e perigosos, a narrativa toma reviravoltas inesperadas.
Embora a história possa ser surreal e não convencional em alguns momentos, ela serve como uma exploração provocativa da condição humana.
Foi o primeira obra de Yukio Mishima que li e recomendo ler este livro, sem dúvida foi uma bela surpresa e irei com certeza ler mais obras deste autor japonês.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
December 21, 2021
"why was he always in that situation, waiting for something to happen? this must be what 'living' was all about. [...] he was struck all over again by the huge amount of energy required to live a life filled with so much meaninglessness."
4.5
4.5
June 8, 2021
Quel livre bizarre ! Après avoir lu au moins quatre livres de Mishima, jamais je n'aurais pu m'attendre à un tel récit de sa part. Et pourtant, nous voici avec ce texte plutôt spécial, très différent de ce qu'il écrit habituellement. Oui, il aborde très souvent la mort, mais pas d'une façon absurde comme ici. En tout cas, ce fut très intéressant ! Beaucoup de réflexions sur l'envie de vivre, la valeur d'une vie...... (<- petit clin d'œil à l'effet stylistique recherché par l'auteur dans ce livre!)
Je vais faire des recherches, voir s'il existe des recherches sur cette œuvre, sa réception, dans une langue que je comprends. Je suis très curieuse de pouvoir en savoir plus !
Je vais faire des recherches, voir s'il existe des recherches sur cette œuvre, sa réception, dans une langue que je comprends. Je suis très curieuse de pouvoir en savoir plus !
June 18, 2024
Pulp noir camp at best. What do you do when you don't want to live anymore but need the body to linger for LSD and lust? What does existence mean? Does it have any meaning left or is there room for meaning?
Seedy and comedic with twists and turns in directionless directions. We meet so many cartoonish characters that confront us with the question of why. Why am I here? Am I fighting to live or living to fight? Where do I belong on the battlefield?
I think suicide and purpose have always combatted Mishima's life. This is him humoring himself, not thinking of the question too seriously. Simply, this is Mishima having fun.
Seedy and comedic with twists and turns in directionless directions. We meet so many cartoonish characters that confront us with the question of why. Why am I here? Am I fighting to live or living to fight? Where do I belong on the battlefield?
I think suicide and purpose have always combatted Mishima's life. This is him humoring himself, not thinking of the question too seriously. Simply, this is Mishima having fun.
November 6, 2021
Hanio Yamada wakes up in a hospital bed after an unsuccessful attempt at ending his own life. He does no soul-searching though, has no regrets—if anything, the experience seems to have swept away all his anxieties and left him absolutely clear-minded, with no feelings at all. But what next, what to do with his life now? Then it comes to him: he’ll put it up for sale—literally. He places the following ad in the Situations Wanted section of one of Tokyo’s tabloid newspapers: ‘Life For Sale. Use me as you wish. I am a twenty-seven-year-old male. Discretion guaranteed. Will cause no bother at all.’
It’s an interesting idea, but the resulting procession of women, crooks and creeps who turn up at his door doesn’t live up to it. The Independent described this as ‘funny, horrific, curious and thoroughly entertaining’; The Spectator as ‘exhilarating, surreal and downright silly’. I’ve got to say, it didn’t strike me as any of those things; just dull mostly and, by the end, boring. Even the possibility (which occurred to me early on and is probably wrong anyway) that Hanio’s suicide attempt hadn’t failed and that what has been happening to him since is some sort of weird afterlife, still wouldn’t rescue the book itself.
True, it was written in 1968, and in Japan, so perhaps it seemed pretty daring at the time. To me though the invention, the humour, all felt rather forced. Turns out it was originally published in a weekly magazine, serialised over months in twenty-one instalments, so perhaps it was squeezed out, with a series of deadlines looming one after another, purely for the money. In fact, having read a bit about him, Mishima himself sounds more ‘curious’ than anything in this novel: during the early Sixties he was a Nobel (Literature) nominee with a huge reputation in his home country; but a decade later, two years after Life for Sale was published, he tried to lead a military coup (!) intended to restore Emperor Hirohito’s status as a divinity—and this attempt having failed miserably, he committed ritual hara-kiri (self-disembowelling) before dying, messily (at the fourth attempt, his ‘seconds’ having botched the first three swings of the samurai sword) by decapitation.
It’s an interesting idea, but the resulting procession of women, crooks and creeps who turn up at his door doesn’t live up to it. The Independent described this as ‘funny, horrific, curious and thoroughly entertaining’; The Spectator as ‘exhilarating, surreal and downright silly’. I’ve got to say, it didn’t strike me as any of those things; just dull mostly and, by the end, boring. Even the possibility (which occurred to me early on and is probably wrong anyway) that Hanio’s suicide attempt hadn’t failed and that what has been happening to him since is some sort of weird afterlife, still wouldn’t rescue the book itself.
True, it was written in 1968, and in Japan, so perhaps it seemed pretty daring at the time. To me though the invention, the humour, all felt rather forced. Turns out it was originally published in a weekly magazine, serialised over months in twenty-one instalments, so perhaps it was squeezed out, with a series of deadlines looming one after another, purely for the money. In fact, having read a bit about him, Mishima himself sounds more ‘curious’ than anything in this novel: during the early Sixties he was a Nobel (Literature) nominee with a huge reputation in his home country; but a decade later, two years after Life for Sale was published, he tried to lead a military coup (!) intended to restore Emperor Hirohito’s status as a divinity—and this attempt having failed miserably, he committed ritual hara-kiri (self-disembowelling) before dying, messily (at the fourth attempt, his ‘seconds’ having botched the first three swings of the samurai sword) by decapitation.
May 13, 2020
What a wonderfully absurd book. This is my first Mishima and what a pleasurable read this was. The book has a very pulpy feel to it but the language really elevates the plot. Hanio is your quintessential bachelor, there's really nothing wrong with him. Not even in the decision he takes: to put his life up for sale. That's not absurd surely. It's just a harmless ad in a newspaper. There will be a few curious enquiries but no real substance to his request. Except the book jumps from one incident to the other with such vivacity. Women also play quite an intriguing role in the book -- a jilted mobster killing his kept woman, a female vampire, a young girl who thinks she'll go mad, Hanoi has affairs with all of them. Except they do nothing to change his outlook on his own life. They evaporate once their roles are over. That's my only grouse. A sudden beautiful death to their stories. But otherwise it's a thoroughly immersive read. Things just happen.
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August 1, 2024I wish he had died in the first paragraph
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