Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Death in Midsummer and Other Stories by Ivan Morris, Donald Keene, Yukio Mishima, Geoffrey Sargent, Edward G. Seidensticker

2 reviews

optionalobjectives's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

A striking, deeply emotional, and, it seems to me, a very personal collection of stories. I can't read Mishima without also thinking about his biography, especially his obsession with what he understood to be traditional Japanese culture and his resulting fascism. But these stories display a varied, nuanced, and curious perspective about the interior worlds of a variety of characters. While some characters seem more distant to Mishima, those that are closer in subject seem to me to be more potent. That potency was especially present the stories centered around seppuku, kabuki, and gay desire. Mishima's glorification of ritual suicide as expression of love and devotion, complete with an imagining of intense pain and the gore of disembowelment, has incredible intensity. The same is true of stories centered on jealousy, depression, and even pettiness. Mishima's writing explores these feelings, their persons, and their circumstances in entrancing complexity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

immunity11's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Suicide