Confessions of a Mask
Yukio Mishima author Meredith Weatherby translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Published:7th Sep '17
Should be back in stock very soon
The dawning of a young man's homosexual and sadistic desires.
'There is in this world a kind of desire like stinging pain'
A Japanese teenager is overcome with longing for his male classmate. He imagines his body punctured with arrows, like the body of St Sebastian in the painting that obsesses him. Over and over again, each night in his private fantasies, the objects of his lust are tortured, killed and maimed. But, in the rigid world of imperial wartime Japan there is no place for such transgressive desires. He must wear a false mask and hide his true nature, whatever the cost.
'A terrific and astringent work of beauty' The Times Literary Supplement
'Mishima is lucid in the midst of emotional confusion, funny in the midst of despair' Christopher Isherwood
'Never has a "confession" been freer from self-pity' Sunday Times
Mishima is lucid in the midst of emotional confusion, funny in the midst of despair -- Christopher Isherwood
Never has a "confession" been freer from self-pity and emotional over-indulgence * Sunday Times *
A writer of immense energy and ability * Time Out *
A terrific and astringent work of beauty... a work of art * Times Literary Supplement *
ISBN: 9780241301197
Dimensions: 197mm x 129mm x 11mm
Weight: 138g
176 pages