Reviews with content warning for Confinement - No Longer Human

As a whole this book is a strange, visceral read. It’s almost comical in it’s depravity and wallowing and yet I cannot help but be utterly gripped by it.

I was worried going in that the long bouts of depressing inner monologues would be absolutely exhausting, but they ended up being some of the most deeply resounding things for me. I absolutely adore the prose in this book. I absolutely flew through it because not only is it short, but every line just pulls you further down into it's own depraved world. I don't know if that is a compliment for some, but it made me thoroughly enjoy it.

Relating to the main character feels so wrong, the words Dazai uses to describe his own depression are so uninhibited, raw, and relatable to anyone who's experience a similar illness. But it also brings feeling of disgust, for the situations the character is in, for his decisions, and worst of all for yourself for being able to relate to it. It sticks you into the mind of a man so ill that he's been institutionalized and forces you to contend with the fact, that you bear fundamental similarities. Then you have to contend with the fact that his bleak outlook on life, is not that different to yours. It's a different kind of pain and one that is absolutely addicting to read.

The closest reading experience I could compare it to would probably be the Metamorphosis by Kafka. But the greatest difference between the books (one that makes me prefer Dazai's) is how personal it is. Gregor is a tragic character, but there is also an undeniable distance between Gregor and the reader. The narrator is very separate from the situation, and while tragic it's also ultimately contained. No Longer Human offers no such comfortable rift. Dazai himself is telling you every detail about why he want to kill himself and how his brain is such a torturous place to live, and the only way to escape it is to have never read it at all.

Highly recommend if you are in the right headspace, but even if you are this book has a good chance of making you spiral in some way.

Content Warnings

elizlizabeth's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No

4.0

Catcher in the Rye but better.

Content Warnings

nmcannon's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

My journey to this book is a little kooky (it involves an RPF vampire visual novel), but I made it. And got my mind blown in the bargain!

Since it would have helped past me, here’s a run down on Ningen Shikkaku VS No Longer Human VS A Shameful Life. Arguably Dazai-san’s most famous work, Ningen Shikkaku was first published in 1948. The author died soon after, so he didn’t live to see his work become one of the bestselling books in Japan. In 1958, scholar Donald Keene translated and published Ningen Shikkaku to American audiences. Keene’s translation is seen as the definitive one and probably what one would see in a bookstore. The phrase “ningen shikkaku” literally translates to “disqualified from being human,” and Keene translated this phrase to the more stylistic “no longer human.” Under the title No Longer Human, this book has been adapted to many, many mediums, including live-action films, anime, animated movies, and manga.

Keene’s translation is also HELLA popular at my local library, like all of Dazai-san’s works. I could wait 8 holds deep, or read Mark Gibeau’s lesser known 2018 translation, A Shameful Life. In the back matter, Gibeau explains that he and some grad students were at a bar one night and decided, for fun, to translate Ningen Shikkaku’s delicate, winding sentences. In true Dazai-san fashion, what started as a drunk game became a serious endeavor. Gibeau positions his translation not in competition, but in conversation with Donald Keene’s—and to avoid confusion, he chose a different title.

No matter the translation, the protagonist and plot remain. An unknown person finds three journals and photos of Ōba Yōzō. Like footage meant to be found, Ōba wrote the journals to record and reveal his true, terror-stricken personality behind his mask of class clown. The autobiography goes from his childhood to late twenties. He has various misadventures, including failing out of university, becoming a popular cartoonist, joining the forbidden Communist party, suffering from addiction, and having various affairs with women. Throughout, Ōba feels intense alienation from other people and struggles to figure out the “rules” of existence. He mimics other people’s behavior and makes them laugh—but inwardly feels lonely and miserable.

If the plot summary seems brief, it’s because the plot isn’t the focus of the novel. I read A Shameful Life in one sitting, and by the end my mind was aswirl with names, places, feelings, images, and self-imposed wretchedness. Instead of everyday mundanities, Dazai-san intensely focuses on Ōba’s inner world. Sometimes I wonder how many of Ōba’s problems would disappear if he rolled in the mud for a bit. Get out of your brain, boy! It sucks in there, with all the depression, alcoholism, and addiction. More seriously, reading was like looking in a fun house mirror for me. My brain is also a sucky place to live sometimes.

To add another mirror, Ōba acts an anthropologist of his own life, trying to figure out “humanity,” just like a teenage me (and, interestingly, Nell in The Haunting of Hill House). How does one define “humanity” as a concept? I cheered when Ōba realized that society isn’t a punishing monolith so much as individuals within society acting cruelly. Probably because I’ve had these thoughts before, I didn’t find the novel depressing so much as intriguing. The most bleh part was Ōba’s dismissive treatment of the women around him.

I haven’t read much Japanese literature, besides manga. I want to explore more! A Shameful Life is a rich body of work, and I could viscerally feel my lack of ability to dissect it. Gibeau’s afterward explained the i-novel and authentic novel movements, which was great. I got the main theme about the impossibility of understanding and being understood, of truly knowing another. But there’s so much more! I can tell why universities have entire classes on Dazai-san’s books.

A Shameful Life easily earns 5 stars, and I may be a Dazai-san fangirl now.

Content Warnings

chipsqul's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.0

it astounds me how simply dark and unhuman yozo seems to be. i love how much he wanted to become human but

Spoiler

never actually became one in the end.

he doesn't strive to become something he is not, rather, he explains in great detail how horrible and unhuman he is. i think, in a world full of people pretending to be someone they're not, that's an amazing thing to admit. to explain how raw and dreadful humans can be. at first i was willing to give this only 3.75 stars but after doing research since i saw some reviews or smth that this was a semi-autobiography of dazai's i guess this book started to hold much more meaning. as if it actually is his suicide note. dazai ended up commiting double suicide after the publication of no longer human with his lover tomie yamazaki. both of their bodies were found only on june 19th (which was supposed to be dazai's 39th birthday if he hadn't committed suicide) he just sounds so mysterious i actually want to read all of his written works now. idek why reading about death or smth entices me so much

Content Warnings

gabrielleclarke05's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I cried numerous times in the last 40 pages, not like sobbing cause it’s sad it was just dark and I felt a hole in my chest.
The books writing reminded me of “Call Me by Your Name” writing when it went on tangents and rambled which I didn’t love but it makes sense in this because it is a fractured mind speaking.
It took me a long time to get through this book because it was so grim and depressing but I’m glad I read it.
I’m conflicted on how to rate this because it was a man’s life and his feelings so I don’t want to speak on the subjects. the book is a lot more depressing when you know the author killed himself after publishing it

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sillispike's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

this book is very fast paced, constantly has a lot happening, and certain things are hinted at rather than outrightly stated. all in all, i loved it. the book explores living with depression, as well as has many hints of social anxiety. it centers around feeling alienated from the world and the feeling that nobody really knows who you are. it was strangely comforting — reading yozo’s dark and depressing thoughts with the mentality of someone battling with some of them myself. i disagreed with him. i liked him. i hated him. i agreed with him. this book had me question a large chunk of myself. the writing was phenomenal, and the plot kept me hooked (although it was somewhat autobiographical, which i tend to dislike, this book filled me with much joy). certainly one of my favorites despite all odds.

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hammy_down's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.5

This book was boring. That is the best way I can describe it. I enjoy the themes. That’s why I bought it. However, reading through it was somewhat bothersome. It felt like nothing happened, honestly.

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