Reviews

Everything that Camus’s “The Stranger” tried to be and surpassing it in every way through metaphor, history, and metatext. This is a story of alienation in the classical sense of the word; being so struck from your self and not only forming a mask but writing as if the mask didn’t exist while still alluding to it at every great step. Mishima’s own history just makes it that much more impactful.

Content Warnings

lenawod's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

ivan_tw's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A beautiful, sad psuedo-autobiography that goes deep into the male psyche in postwar Japan, exploring sexuality, masculinity, self-loathing, obsession, and suicidal ideation. I kept comparing it to Dazai's "No Longer Human" and found it to be a much stronger work that focused on similar themes. Mishima's prose is achingly gorgeous, allusive, and poetic; it makes me think of Melville, if not a bit Biblical.

Content Warnings

deep_in_the_reads's review against another edition

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4.0

Confessions of a Mask is an examination of masculine gender performativity in wartime Japan. It centers around Kochan as he examines his own sexuality and the ways that it isolates him from society. Yukio Mishima writes in a richly poetic way comparable to Herman Melville, making heavy use of allusion and metaphor to allude to living as a closeted gay man in a hyper-masculine culture. For example, Mishima uses the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, as well as Kabuki theatre, as metaphors for being closeted. I couldn’t help but feel drawn into his narrative of isolation and attempts to conform to society’s constricting mould.

There’s also a frank strangeness to Confessions of a Mask that’s right up my alley—rather than presenting a sanitized, overly-sentimental portrayal of homosexuality, Kochan has a slew of niche fetishes that makes for pretty bizarre reading. Though even here, his fetish for blood and death could be seen as symbolic of the martyr complex that was drilled into the heads of military-age men at the time, and the obscene violence that Japan perpetrated against other Asian nations during the war.

Because of censorship laws at the time, the intent of many scenes is buried in euphemistic language. Additionally, Kochan’s self-examination is analytical and mostly comes across as cold and calculating rather than passionate. As a result, he is sometimes hard to emotionally connect with, and some of the long philosophical passages are a bit cumbersome to read. The dated translation of my copy (done by Meredith Weatherby, 1958) is probably somewhat to blame. The second quarter of the book particularly dragged, but once the character Sonoko is introduced around the halfway mark, things pick up again.

I encourage anyone who reads this to take their time and think about the scenes they are presented with. Initially, I found the ending disappointing, but the whole meaning of it changes if you read between the lines. Though Confessions of a Mask is not nearly as emotionally-gripping as I had hoped, it’s easy to see why this is considered a gem of early gay literature in Japan.

therestlessbookflea07's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It is imperative to reiterate the incredible and purposeful writing of this novel. The introduction until the final literary tapestry of self-confusion, human attraction, and social conflicts in different ages were written astoundingly. The fierce desires of the self and the wrong trajectories of life roads led readers to exchange intentions with the main character about his flaws, the flaws labeled upon him, and his inner declaration of 'human-hood' is purely fulfilling to read. Any author can create a character of sophistication and complexity to compel and convince its readers, but Yukio Mishima emancipates the beauty of contentment in character writing with their imperfections and hunger for meaning as their entire flesh.

This novel highly reminded me of Dazai's No Longer Human (which is also a personal favorite), not in terms of its main themes, but its objectives, writing (again haha), and fury to connect with its audience in a language that its society has built and taught upon them.

Good lord (lol), this is truly one of my favorites this year!

rociovoncina's review against another edition

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5.0

Titulo: Confesiones de una mascara
Autor: Yukio Mishima
Año publicado: 1949
Motivo de lectura: @asianreadathon #AsianReadathon
Lectura / Relectura: Lectura
Fisico / Electronico: Electronico
Mi edicion: -
Idioma: Español
Puntuacion: 5/5

Este libro plantea la lucha incansable entre el intelecto y las emociones, que ocurre cuando dejamos que las emociones tomen el control absoluto de nuestra vida y las consecuencias que esto acarrea. Asi mismo lo que ocurre cuando solo dejamos que el intelecto tome el control y lo dificil que es el balance de ambas cosas.
Es fascinante el nivel de introspeccion de Kochan (el personaje principal), leer este libro es estar permanentemente en su mente.

Es magistral la habilidad de Yukio Mishima para describir emociones y sensaciones, son tan palpables, tan reales que todo era ser transportado a estar ahi, al lado de Kochan como un testigo mudo de todas sus vivencias.
El hecho de que esto en realidad sea un relato autobiografico le añade un extra fantastico.
De esos libros que lamentas que sean cortos.

riep's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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