Publication Details
Reading Details
Highlights
I have seen three pictures of the man.
The first, a childhood photograph you might call it, shows him about the age of ten, a small boy surrounded by a great many women (his sisters and cousins, no doubt). He stands in brightly checked trousers by the edge of a garden pond. His head is tilted at an angle thirty degrees to the left, and his teeth are bared in an ugly smirk.
I will be thinking about this book for quite a long while. It will take time just to go through the checklist of behaviors and thoughts that seem written directly at me and reassure myself that I'm actually alright (or am I?)
This is a clever and uncomfortable novel. Dazai has us read a collection of found notes, book-ended by two short descriptions of the notes' provenance.The description of some photos found with the notes is a masterpiece of observation. Eerie and foreboding.
This is an exceptional piece of literature.