A review by jennaweston
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book honestly surprised me…in a great way. I fully expecting to hate it. To slog through it. To have a really hard time reading it. But to my surprise, I freaking loved this book. It was such an interesting perspective on life and that feeling of isolation. There were a lot of lines that hit home for me and struck me in an intense way. 

What I Liked 
  • The autobiographical nature of it made it feel caught between a memoir and fiction. 
    • Having the character look at photos of the boy and then reading the journal entries, very meta, but also gave such an interesting weight to seeing yourself through someone else’s eyes and what they must see in every tiny detail of you.
  • The writing — absolutely stunning. 
    • “I shut away my private anguish in a tiny compartment, keeping my gloom and nervousness secret and putting on a determined show of innocent cheer until, little by little, my transformation into a droll eccentric was complete.”
  • Dazai so eloquently captures the feeling of being an outsider and isolation in this book that I haven’t really read or connected with anywhere else. That feeling of putting on a show everywhere you go to be liked, but never really connecting with people on that deeper level.

What I didn’t like
  • More like a content warning: it is very dark — this book is not for the faint of heart, as it’s dealing with tough topics like suicide, drugs, and alcoholism.
  • Don’t love that he plays such a pivotal role in another girl’s death.

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