I bought this at Oz Comic-Con in 2025. It was totally on spec. I stopped at a book shop booth and they only had translations. I did ask my normal questions but they didn’t seem to know anything about the books. I just bought this one from them. I have never heard of Osamu Dazai before. He seems to have had a sad life. If you know of him then you’ll understand.
I wandered through this book never sure if I would finish it. Almost the entire book is written from the point of view of a young lady, Kazuko. I have no idea if all Japanese women are as introspective as Kazuko is. And I have no idea if she represents Japanese women at all. Although, I have heard that Japanese women are as devoted to their parents as Kazuko seems to be.
Kazuko has lost her baby, her marriage and lost her father in a short space of time. She’s gone back to live with her mother, but finds she’s not good enough. It doesn’t seem to matter how much she does she is never as good as her brother. But, he is not there. When their money runs out, uncle organises for them to move to the country in a smaller house. Kazuko even does some work in the fields to help support them. As an aristocrat this is unthinkable and yet she seems to enjoy it.
I found this a slow book. I struggled to wade through all the beautiful prose. Yes, the writing was lovely, but I didn’t see anything I wanted to make a note of and talk about specifically. Looking back now I find a little passage about Kazuko being a possible spy. The reason they think that is because she seems like a foreigner. This might be because she’s new to the area, or possibly because she was born an aristocrat and now is working in the fields like a peasant.
One thing I found so different was when Kazuko was sent to apologise to the neighbours. She’d almost burned down their house and therefore the neighbour’s houses. The next day her mother sent her around the neighbourhood to apologise and give them money. Yes, it was serious, but I do not understand why an apology should need to be backed up by money. Is this a Japanese custom? Maybe it’s an old custom and I’ve just never heard of it before.
We do see her brother. And it’s clear that he doesn’t seem to help much. He spends a lot of their money with his addictions, always promising to come clean and never managing to make that work. You do need to know that there are a number of pages written from the point of view of Naoji, the brother. We see his world and get to understand why he’s addicted. The reason we see all of this is because they’re his suicide note. I felt this section was very powerful. I had less trouble reading this than the rest. I’m not sure if it’s because Dazai was speaking from the heart, he had multiple suicide attempts, or something else. What I know is that I mostly preferred reading the boys’ books when I was young, they always had much more action than books for girls.
Anyway. I did make it through and I’m pleased I did. I think I it would have felt wrong and odd to have not completed this book. Can I recommend it? I’m really not sure. I’d suggest it depends on if you can deal with the issues I’ve mentioned, or if you are familiar with reading Japanese literature. If you’ve read it in any