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No Longer Human

By Osamu Dazai
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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
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai is a poignant exploration of alienation, identity, and despair. It follows the tumultuous life of a young man who feels detached from humanity and society. Through a series of personal reflections and experiences, it delves into his struggles with existential questions and his search for understanding in a world that feels increasingly isolating.
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Format: Hardback
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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?

This book may appeal to you if you are captivated by deeply introspective narratives exploring themes of alienation, societal expectations, and the search for identity. It offers a profound and poignant portrayal of a man's struggle to connect with the world around him, making it an enthralling read for those interested in poignant character studies and existential dilemmas.

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Now in a gift cloth edition, No Longer Human ponders profound alienation

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

Mine has been a life of much shame. I can't even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.

Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. His attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult.

Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness. Still one of the ten bestselling books in Japan, No Longer Human is an important and unforgettable modern classic:

The struggle of the individual to fit into a normalizing society remains just as relevant today as it was at the time of writing. (The Japan 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?

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai is highly introspective and has drawn contrasting reviews. Readers frequently cite its raw honesty, with some seeing Dazai's work as a reflection of personal vulnerabilities they'd prefer to ignore. The writing is described as deviant yet compelling, offering a unique blend of aristocratic elegance and delinquent despair, resonating well with contemporary themes of emotional introspection.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780811232432

Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 15 November 2022

Country: United States

Imprint: New Directions Publishing Corporation

Contributors:

  • Translated by Donald Keene
  • Translated by Donald Keene
  • Translated by Donald Keene

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 20.0mm

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 211.0mm

Weight: 352g

Pages: 192

Collections

Classic Fiction Classic General Fiction Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Osamu Dazai

About the Author

Osamu Dazaiย was born in 1909 into a powerful landowning family of northern Japan. A brilliant student, he entered the French department of Tokyo University in 1930, but later boasted that in the five years before he left without a degree, he had never attended a lecture. Dazai was famous for confronting head-on the social and moral crises of postwar Japan before he committed suicide by throwing himself into Tokyoโ€™s Tamagawa Aqueduct. His body was found on what would have been his 39th birthday. Donald Keene, the author of dozens of books in both English and Japanese as well as the famed translator of Dazai, Kawabata, and Mishima, was the first non-Japanese to receive the Yomiuri Prize for Literature.

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