Ok, it's a day late. Big deal. I was going to write it up yesterday, but I got sidetracked.
I was scanning the shelves of the library, looking for something that wouldn't be too taxing to read, when I stumbled upon a couple of books by Yukio Mishima. I wasn't familiar with his work, but clearly he was at least good enough or popular enough to warrant someone publishing more than one book. None of the books looked too terribly long, but the graphic design of the cover of this one really grabbed my attention. Also, there were some glowing blurbs on the back of the book from The Nation and The Christian Science Monitor, so I figured it was worth checking out.
When I got home, I Googled Mishima and learned that he was quite the famous author in Japan - and everywhere else for that matter. He was nominated three times for the Nobel Literature Prize. He's a poet, a playwright and a novelist many times over, and even had a career as an actor. In 1970, he led an attempted coup in which he demanded the powers of the Japanese Emperor be restored. When the coup failed he committed suicide by the Samurai ritual Seppuku, also known as Harakiri. I was intrigued.
Book 05 - The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea - Yukio Mishima
Thirteen-year-old Noburo has been a handful lately. He's been sneaking out in the middle of the night, and hanging out with a small gang of boys whose leader goes by the name "Chief." It's gotten so bad that his mother, Fusako, takes to locking him in his room tonight, as she feels this is the only way she can control him. The boy's father died a few years back, and his mother has been raising him alone ever since. Sort of. Fusako is fairly well off financially. She runs a fancy boutique clothing store and can afford a housekeeper and a driver, but since the death her husband, she has not had a man in her life.
Then she meets Ryuji, a sailor on a merchant ship that is currently docked in the port. The relationship between Fusako and Ryuji is initially purely physical, but after he sets sail again they continue the relationship through written correspondence. Ryuji comes to realize that he is probably not going to find the glory for which he once thought he was predestined, and when he returns to port he decides to give up the sea and ask Fusako to marry him.
The locked bedroom door keeps Noburu from sneaking out in the middle of the night, but it does not keep him from hanging out with the Chief and his gang. The other members of the gang are referred to only by number, which seems to imply their standing in the pecking order. Noburu is "Number 3." The Chief possesses a strange combination of intellectualism and immaturity. Part philosopher, part military leader, he has a Svengali-like hold on the rest of the gang, which he uses to get them to commit acts of unspeakable violence. He advocates a world view he calls "objectivity" in which he and his fellow gang members are "geniuses," adults are sentimental hypocrites, and which advocates a brutally callous approach to any interaction with the adult world. This world view eventually poisons whatever admiration Noburu has for Ryuji, and once it is obvious that Ryuji is destined to be domesticated, the Chief demands a violent course of action.
I really liked the book. Initially I wondered about the stilted nature of some of the dialog, but I think this is intentional, as the rest of the prose flows so fluidly. There was one incredibly violent scene that I could have done without, but one could argue that it was necessary to show what the boys were capable of. I've read online that many think there is a fair amount of symbolism that is apparent if the reader is familiar with Japanese culture, but most of that probably slipped by me.
When I was looking at this book in the library, there was something vaguely familiar about the title. It turns out there was an American film based on the book made in 1970. They kept the title but changed the setting from Japan to England. The film stars Kris Kristofferson and Sarah Miles, in the roles of Ryuji and Fusako respectively, but of course the names are changed to Jim and Anne. I've never seen the movie so I don't know whether it is any good, but it did pick up a couple of Golden Globes, so who knows?
