Confessions of a Mask
by Yukio Mishima
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Book Summary Information
Author: Yukio MishimaTranslator: Meredith Weatherby
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1958-01-17
ISBN: 081120118X
Number of pages: 254
Publisher: New Directions
Book Reviews of Confessions of a Mask
Book Review: Standing the Test of Time
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a first person fictional narrative describing the development of the sexual identity and personality of Kochan, a homosexual male. It was written at a time when such an orientation was secret, and when open was reviled. It was written in Japan where even today revealing personal information of much less import is still off limits.
The first part is mostly interior, dealing the narrator's childhood and his pre-sexual observations. He is fascinated with the night-soil man, with art work dealing with death and suffering of males such as knights and St. Sebastian and with a classmate, Omi. He shows how he develops a mask so that no one will know what he really thinks and feels. One particularly clever ruse is shown in talking with friends about a female bus driver. His schoolmates come away with the feeling that he is not only a heterosexual, but an experienced one.
In the second part, "the mask" attempts to love a female as both a function of preserving itself and Kochan's more genuine attempt to be heterosexual. While the character is seamless, the narrative is stylistically different. It is more descriptive of events and has more dialog. Here, the fascination with death takes a different turn. Kochan, at first, does not consider where this relationship will lead since the war, or his own suicide, will probably end it.
It's been a while since I've read John Nathan's Mishima: A Biography , but as I remember it, the events of Kochan's life match those of Mishima's. He was raised by domineering grandmother who separated him from other boys, went to an exclusive school and used his rural residency as a draft strategy. Mishima's father beat him for writing which is not only parallel with Kochan's father, it is noteworthy on its own, since this is Mishima's first novel.
After over 60 years this novel is still fresh and relevant. I believe it will continue to stand the test of time.
Summary of Confessions of a Mask
One of the classics of modern Japanese fiction.
Confessions of a Mask 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 polite, post-war Japan. To survive, he must live behind a mask of propriety.Christopher Isherwood comments?"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."
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