Do you enjoy reading books so evocative that you are forever changed just by bearing witness to it? If so, then I have just the book for you!
Written by Shuji Tsushima under the pen name of Osamu Dazai in 1948, No Longer Human follows the tragic life of Yozo Oba. With various notebooks capturing Oba’s different phases of life, the reader not only sees his struggles but is also brought along into the darkest depths right alongside him. While born to a prosperous family, Oba struggled immensely throughout his life, struggling to understand social rules that seemed to come so easily to his friends and family.
As a shishōsetsu, sometimes referred to as an ‘I-Novel’, No Longer Human also offers the reader a vulnerable insight into Dazai’s own life. While there is some discourse about how closely the book reflects his own experiences, the book undoubtedly borrows much from his own struggles.
Just like Oba, Dazai was born into a wealthy family, the son of a wealthy landowner and an influential politician. Despite his father’s wishes that he enter politics, Dazai became embroiled in writing following the suicide of Ryunosuke Akutagawa, studying literature in college but failing to get a degree after dropping out due to mental health struggles. Following an arrest for involvement with the Communist Party in Japan, Dazai’s life took a steep downwards turn, marked by multiple suicide attempts. The same year that his best-selling book, No Longer Human, was published, he died in a double suicide with a married woman that he was having an affair with.
In this, No Longer Human becomes truly haunting, with many considering the book a sort of literary suicide note left by Dazai before he ended his life. While not a read for the lighthearted, No Longer Human is sure to stick with the reader for long after they comb through the pages.