No Longer Human

Back to books! This time, I'm going to show you the japanese book that was a really good read. It's the last completed work by Osamu Dazai (1909 – 1948) a Japanese author who's considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th-century Japan and it was published posthumously. The protagonist's name's Yozo, a sensitive and artistically talented son of a rich landowner. In solitude, he experiences a morbid fear of people. He feels lost in a world where it is difficult to distinguish truth from lies, former values lose their meaning. He is tormented by a sense of shame, low self-esteem and a belief that he is unable to meet the demands of the environment. In childhood, he's trying to escape from hard feelings acting buffoonery, in adolescence and later escape to the social margin and into addictions. His unhappy life ends with a suicide.

No longer human is a Yozo's confession. The main character is an outsider and who's afraid of even his own happiness. He is terrified by his own being. He's hiding under the mask allowing him to exist. He feels lonely even though he's among the crowd. His whole life is like a performance. The world has nothing to do with what it really is. Only hidden images show his pessimistic, sad soul. It's also a story about how easy it is to get to the bottom. This book is the perfect example of "the depression behind the grin" thing. There's a desire to lose what is given only once. It's a life.