Mishima: A biography - Hardcover

Nathan, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 024189123X ISBN 13: 9780241891230

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 1975

Synopsis

At forty-five, Yukio Mishima was the outstanding Japanese writer of his generation, celebrated both at home and abroad for The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. In 1970 he startled the world by stepping out onto a balcony in Tokyo before an assembly of troops and plunging a sword into his abdomen; a disciple then beheaded him, completing the ritual of hara-kiri. John Nathan's riveting biography traces the life of this tortured, nearly superhuman personality. Mishima survived a grotesque childhood, and subsequently his sadomasochistic impulses became manifest—as did an increasing obsession with death as the supreme beauty. Nathan, who knew Mishima professionally and personally, interviewed family, colleagues, and friends to unmask the various—often seemingly contradictory—personae of the genius who felt called by "a glittering destiny no ordinary man would be permitted."

About this title

About the Author:

John Nathan, the Takashima Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has translated the novels of both Yukio Mishima and the Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oë. He recently published Sony, a portrait of the giant Japanese corporation.

Review:

"Compelling reading...a study of the whole man, in all his volcanic complexity." -- Christian Science Monitor

"The most intimate and brilliant portrait of a Japanese ever achieved by a westerner." -- Philadelphia Bulletin

About this edition

• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
• Publication date: 1975
• ISBN 10: 024189123X
• ISBN 13: 9780241891230
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 300