Author: Yukio Mishima
Published: 1958, New Directions
Genre: Literature, Coming of Age (Japanese)
Rating: 4/5
Last summer my MFA mentor, Mitch Wieland, suggested I read the works of Yukio Mishima as I wanted to read Japanese literature. I purchased a couple of novels which were put into the pile of to read books. As I have confessed, I buy books faster than I can read them so Mishima's novels got buried. After reading Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood I knew it was time to give Mishima a chance.
Confessions of a Mask is the story of a young man who learns that he is unlike most of his adolescent companions. Preoccupied with death and the brilliance of the male body Mishima's unnamed protagonist learns to live behind a mask. The complex social system of Japan bleeds from the pages as the MC struggles to become one with society both in his public and private life.
The most gripping aspect of Mishima's writing was the interior monologue of the MC. I often felt myself becoming lost with the character's thoughts and emotions as he grows from child to young adult. Detached and unable to understand parts his world readers will find themselves feeling just as lost through the MC's thought process. The effect is successful as I began to question the sense of my own reality as I finished the last page.
(#8 of the 100 Book Challenge)
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