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After the Banquet

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( 3,237 ratings, 299 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
In After the Banquet by Yukio Mishima, a dynamic middle-aged owner of a Tokyo restaurant, Kazu, finds herself entangled in the world of politics after marrying a retired diplomat. As she becomes increasingly involved in her husband's campaign, the novel explores themes of personal ambition, societal expectations, and the complexities of relationships against a backdrop of post-war Japan. Mishima delves deeply into the clash between personal desires and political realities.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate exploring themes of political ambition, personal sacrifice, and the complexities of human relationships. Set in post-war Japan, it intertwines a compelling love story with societal and political narratives, offering a deep dive into the nature of identity and the conflict between private desires and public life.

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For years Kazu has run her fashionable restaurant with a combination of charm and shrewdness. But when the she falls in love with one of her clients, an aristocratic retired politician, she renounces her business in order to become his wife.

An acute psychological portrait of a marriage where lofty traditions clash with appetite and ambition

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

After the Banquet, Mishima's 1960 novel, is a portrait of love and marriage in later life, featuring his best female character - the irrepressible Kazu.

For years, Kazu has run her fashionable restaurant with a combination of charm and shrewdness. Then she falls in love. The man is one of her clients, an aristocratic retired politician, and she renounces her business in order to become his wife. But it is not so easy to renounce her independent spirit. Eventually, Kazu must choose between her marriage and the demands of her irrepressible vitality.

After the Banquet is a magnificent portrait of political and domestic warfare, and love in later life.

An exquisitely paced high comedy at once characterized by humour and restraint... features a magnificently ebullient heroine as she embarks upon one more adventure in love - Kirkus

Mishima's most novelistic work, with a degree of earthiness and warmth rare in his fiction - New York Times

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

After the Banquet by Yukio Mishima receives praise for being a significant and profound work, considered one of Mishima's most distinguished achievements by the New Yorker. The New York Times highlights it as his most novelistic and warmest work. The Spectator regards Mishima as Japan's leading literary figure, while the Atlantic commends the book for its direct yet poetic and allusive style.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780099282785

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 11 March 1999

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Vintage Classics

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 18.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 199.0mm

Weight: 207g

Pages: 288

About the Author

Yukio Mishima was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the Emperor - the same code that produced the austerity and self-sacrifice of Zen. He wrote countless stories and thirty-three plays, in some of which he performed. Several films have been made from his novels, including The Sound of Waves, Enjo which was based on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea. Among his other works are the novels Confessions of a Mask and Thirst for Love and the short story collections Death in Midsummer and Acts of Worship. The Sea of Fertility tetralogy, however, is his masterpiece. After Mishima conceived the idea of The Sea of Fertility in 1964, he frequently said he would die when it was completed. On 25 November 1970, the day he completed The Decay of the Angel, the last novel of the cycle, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide) at the age of forty-five.

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