Book Review - No Longer Human

 

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

176 pages | Literary fiction, Japanese lit, classic 

It is a story of Yozo, a male protagonist which felt alienated from the society since he was young. Referring himself as a clown (and once a toad) for acting jovial and funny in order to hide his true self to be able to blend well in society despite his deep anxiety and depression. He was sexually assaulted a few times when he was young and how he kept silence for the realization of favoritism will do him no good. Later in his life, he started to indulge in self-destructive behaviors to ease his suffering.

Wow, this book took me by surprise on how much I actually enjoyed reading it. A whole lot people said this is depressing and I certainly will not deny that as it only gets darker the more you read it. But I only realised how depressing the piece is, when I was in the last quarter of it. The first three quarter felt more to grim rather than depressing. But somehow, I believe, the definition of the word vary for every individual. It always makes me feel uneasy to use the word depressed, depressing or depressive as they carry such a strong meaning. Too heavy to take it lightly. I refuse to say I am in a similar state but I will not deny the fact that how similar Yozo and I, and that it etched my heart. But what mostly fascinates me is the fact that, how this book represents a big part of me, and realizing that, it gives me a false sense of excitement and made me think a whole lot more about a lot of things.

The way he thinks, his thoughts, his perspectives on people and life events, even about how he thought of himself, all felt familiar and normal as everything is far too relatable to me, and how it truly felt like the author wrote this book based on my mind. It felt personal and I don’t see myself recommending this just to anyone.  

I personally do not feel exposed but somehow relieved (?) I think because of the fact how similar Yozo and I, and how his story makes some senses of my life and that, I feel less alone. If one day, someone came to me and ask,

“How sad can you be?”

I will not explain any longer but ask the person if they truly want to know, they can read No Longer Human, and they will get the deeper picture of my usual thoughts. And I bet how later the person will quietly wish to undo the whole thing (read: the question).

I find out that people had been comparing this book with The Stranger in some ways. What a coincidence I think, when I finished reading The Stranger right before I started reading this book. Both may seem similar but different. The first half of The Stranger, I like how routinely Meursault life felt like to me, and how the first half  made me repeat myself, saying in my head, 'this is totally my vibe'  but when the murder took over, I felt rather detached to the character but not the story as a whole. I always feel the connection between the character and myself is somewhat important for me. To make a better sense of things even though not everything has to make sense.

 I personally think it was a good one as it invokes important questions to oneself about humanity, system and society. It makes you asked yourself a whole lot questions that nobody seems to have solid answers. A good book will always make you question and ponder, and questions are always good.

Back to the earlier discussion, the major similarity that I can pinpoint from these 2 books is, how detached Yozo and Meursault from their deep sense of selves. You will get the idea how empty and hollow Meursault as a person, like a released helium balloon whereas no true sense of direction and it was simply out of reach (at least in my opinion). 

On the other hand, what can be explained by my massive connection to Yozo which contributed to the resonance I felt with the character is, how he actually feels very deeply, painfully inferior which makes him to think he not deserved of good things and how that notion led him to believe he doesn’t trust in basic human needs, when in fact he did feel the need of them. And his fragility, and how he is aware yet confused and always laden with questions which led him to wrong notions that seemed to drown him alive. He was far too broken to see, to trace back things. He was made blurry of his past and feelings.

There were a few scenes in the book that really shaken me up but I would love to write about this one particular scene where Yozo was on the brink of breaking and Flatfish and Horiki appeared out of nowhere, speaking and acting unlike their usual selves in intention to save him. And how Horiki’s gentle smile caught him off guard and that, he shattered completely. I was in the situation once and being present at such a critical point of life, you never expect how/what the simplest act like a sincere, gentle smile can do for a person in such state. That’s when I witnessed the rare beauty of allowing humanity to take control of such situations.   

This book is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea and I believe no one would want to read it for fun but you can definitely give it a try if you want some insights of life and on how depressed someone can be, that it mightn’t make any sense to you.