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Loading... Confessions of a Mask (1948)by Yukio Mishima
   Japanese Literature (15) 1940s (45) » 15 more Best of World Literature (120) Best LGBT Fiction (64) Favourite Books (1,154) Books about World War II (132) 20th Century Literature (691) Readable Classics (98) Overdue Podcast (481) No current Talk conversations about this book.  finlaaaay | Aug 1, 2023 |   fleshed | Jul 16, 2023 |  ) bluestraveler | Aug 15, 2022 | ) Kuszma | Jul 2, 2022 |  ) Goatskin | Jul 26, 2021 |
"In 'Confessions of a Mask' a literary artist of delicate sensibility and startling candor, has chosen to write for the few rather than the many." Belongs to Publisher Series
One of the classics of modern Japanese fiction. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)895.635Literature Literature of other languages Asian (east and south east) languages Japanese Japanese fiction 1945–2000LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.84)
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Wikipedia in English (1)
1
As per the above, this particular novel about a boy dealing with dark sadistic sexual fantasies about other boys comes across as semi-autobiographical, although there's strictly no evidence of such. Certainly Mishima was familiar with putting on a mask, or public face.
It's also a good look at war-time Japan, incidentally.
The translation was a bit strained at times - for instance, I could see the translator struggling to come up with an idiomatic translation of Japanese set phrases like 'ittekimasu' that have no equivalent in English. At another point, the text mentions "H. prefecture near Osaka" and I just wondered why they didn't write "Hyogo". Perhaps when the book was translated in the 50s they didn't think people would be able to handle all the foreign names, a trend that I think has changed since then. I guess I'd read it in Japanese, but my level - and patience to read all the kanji - is still a bit too low for that.