60th out of 348 books
—
1,244 voters
The Setting Sun
Set in the early postwar years, it probes the destructive effects of war and the transition from a feudal Japan to an industrial society.
Paperback, 175 pages
Published
January 17th 1968
by New Directions
(first published 1947)
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Apr 19, 2011
Mariel
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
enjoy the unknown
Recommended to Mariel by:
military fashion show
Osamu Dazai's The Setting Sun gave me a foriegn sort of feeling inside, like I felt different, not in a something is about to happen way, exactly. Different when you're yourself playing at being someone else? I wish I could match my heartbeat with its pulse and my impulses as I lapsed into its rhythm. I was creeped out. I was in awe. The best I can do is that it was the kind of foriegness that Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy had. I mean, it isn't a fantasy in the genre sense of the word. But...more
An analysis of sickness and love in the grip of large scale sickness and destruction. An analysis without recourse to logical analysis - like poetry.
"A science which is postulated on the assumption that human beings are avaricious through all eternity is utterly devoid of point (whether in problems of distribution or any other aspect) to a person who is not avaricious."
This winningly naive thought by the main character, upon reading a book on economics in the wake of WWII, her first foray into s...more
"A science which is postulated on the assumption that human beings are avaricious through all eternity is utterly devoid of point (whether in problems of distribution or any other aspect) to a person who is not avaricious."
This winningly naive thought by the main character, upon reading a book on economics in the wake of WWII, her first foray into s...more
I'm not sure what to say about this - I can see that it was an important book -- there are moments of lyrical beauty in it - But it is very hard to adjudge a book written in Japanese when read by an English only speaker.... On the other hand, the angst of the writer and the character -- Dazai himself committed suicide -- is.... it is no longer a very revolutionary act. Death is not a very revolutionary act. It is clinical... and while it may have shocked the bourgeois sentiments of the 19th cent...more
I found reading “The Setting Sun” by Osamu Dazai a bit disappointing, especially in its second half around one fourth, since its readers have been overwhelmed by his seemingly destructive obsession. So the more we read farther, the more we feel guiltily embittered. This might be another genre worth studying/doing research for advanced degrees in good and great universities worldwide. I’m not sure if this literary symptom is related to any existing literary theory or any field of psychology/psych...more
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So bleak. Dazai writes about the dissolution of a single aristocratic Japanese family, and he does a great job of showing the sad, helpless position that lower aristocrats of any nationality usually find themselves in. They're lost between a quickly disintegrating past and future that has no real interest in or place for them. Suicide comes up a lot in this book. Yet it never felt shocking or surprising. It seems inevitable that they will all end up compromised, broken, and dead. What did surpri...more
I was always kind of hesitant to read anything by Osamu Dazai because I had the impression that he was kind of emo. I still think you can't have multiple suicide failures if you're serious about it, and this guy did, and was famous for it. I also had the impression that he was really into Christianity (not as a religion but as a supply of symbols) and western writers, especially French, and that he was one of those Asians absolutely desperate to appear as un-"Asian" as possible. I was kind of wr...more
This is the first time I've read anything by Osamu Dazai. Apparently, Dazai was a tragic figure - he became addicted to morphine and made several suicide attempts before he succeeded in 1948. The translator's notes say that he was considered one of the great chroniclers of contempory Japanese life. The story is about the decline of the aristocracy after the war. The images that Dazai brings to the reader are startling in their hue and weight - the mother who sips her soup from the end of the spo...more
Second time through this perfect book, the first being a dozen years ago. The Keene introduction does a good job of highlighting some of the things I enjoy most about Japanese writing and characterization:
"At the same time, she remains unmistakably Japanese in her relations with the people around her and in her quick emotional responses to the moments of intensity in her life. Because family confidences are almost impossible (except on the rare occasions when the repressions of Japanese life are...more
"At the same time, she remains unmistakably Japanese in her relations with the people around her and in her quick emotional responses to the moments of intensity in her life. Because family confidences are almost impossible (except on the rare occasions when the repressions of Japanese life are...more
The cultural turmoil of post-war japan makes for a novel that remains relevant to 21st century humans of any modern society. The prose at first comes off as sparse but eventually blossoms into blissfully succinct branches of thought expressed with impeccable economy. Not a single word is wasted or conspicuously absent. Once you get accustomed to the flow of that narrative, the real tragedy begins. It's very short; one could get through it in a day.
I can see how the novel needs to be done in the first person, and why the narrator needs to be a woman (and I like the allusion to Zarathustra) but is the decline of an aristocracy all that interesting? I watched K-20 (怪人二十面相・伝) the other night, which depicts Japan at the same time but having avoided WWII and the collapse of its hereditary aristocracy—and it was more interesting if only because it presented a novelty.
Why are we so partial to our own DNA? Clearly, great men and women rise to the...more
Why are we so partial to our own DNA? Clearly, great men and women rise to the...more
I need to quit reading these. Cried myself sick and thought of life's futility, love, and gentleness. Dazai was a brilliant author, and he communicates his soul so effectively that his every work seems to justify his suicide in the most beautiful terms until it is understandable and attractive. "The dying are beautiful, but to live, to survive- those things somehow seem hideous and contaminated with blood."
This is unhealthy literature for anyone who feels down or questions the validity of liv...more
This is unhealthy literature for anyone who feels down or questions the validity of liv...more
Judul: The Setting Sun (斜陽--Shayō)
Penulis: Osamu Dazai
Penerjemah: Donald Keene
Penerbit: Tuttle Publishing, Berkeley Books
Tebal: 175 halaman
Terbit: 1981
Berlatarkan Jepang setelah Perang Dunia II, "The Setting Sun" bercerita tentang Kazuko, anak perempuan tertua dari sebuah keluarga aristokrat yang kehilangan hartanya akibat perang. Kazuko dan ibunya pindah ke daerah pinggiran setelah perang selesai dan mulai menjalani kehidupan dengan bekerja di ladang dan memperoleh makanan lewat pembagian jata...more
Penulis: Osamu Dazai
Penerjemah: Donald Keene
Penerbit: Tuttle Publishing, Berkeley Books
Tebal: 175 halaman
Terbit: 1981
Berlatarkan Jepang setelah Perang Dunia II, "The Setting Sun" bercerita tentang Kazuko, anak perempuan tertua dari sebuah keluarga aristokrat yang kehilangan hartanya akibat perang. Kazuko dan ibunya pindah ke daerah pinggiran setelah perang selesai dan mulai menjalani kehidupan dengan bekerja di ladang dan memperoleh makanan lewat pembagian jata...more
This is the first novel I've read by Osamu Dazai, one of Japan' most important post-war novelists.
I won't lie and say it wasn't a difficult read. It isn't a long novel so I'd like to sit down and really analyze a lot of what he's written here.
It was hard to get into at first too. A lot of the beginning felt like it dragged one a bit too heavily.
The translation also seemed a bit aged and I think "The Setting Sun" could definitely deserve a new translation: especially considering the current on...more
I won't lie and say it wasn't a difficult read. It isn't a long novel so I'd like to sit down and really analyze a lot of what he's written here.
It was hard to get into at first too. A lot of the beginning felt like it dragged one a bit too heavily.
The translation also seemed a bit aged and I think "The Setting Sun" could definitely deserve a new translation: especially considering the current on...more
such a quiet novel. undeniably good, but oh so tragic. the book is mostly about Kazuko the daughter of an aristocratic family that realizes the truth about class once her station changes after the war. she is put to work doing manual labor for awhile. her brother goes off to fight in the war and then gone missing for most of the book is presumed dead. Kazuko and her mother sell their big house to move to the country as money runs out. Kazuko struggles with being poor but some of the books best m...more
Jul 15, 2011
Taka
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
japan_jul07-aug10,
japanese_lit
"Humans are born to love and revolt"--
J-Lit Binge #7: The Setting Sun
He floored me yet again. The story is based on Chekov's The Cherry Orchard in that it's about an aristocratic family falling into ruin. It's deceptively simple yet extremely powerful.
It tells of a mother who dies of TB, her daughter who wants to have a child of a drunken and conceited novelist her brother used to admire, and her brother who leads a decadent life and gradually destroys himself with drugs, alcohol, and women.
The...more
J-Lit Binge #7: The Setting Sun
He floored me yet again. The story is based on Chekov's The Cherry Orchard in that it's about an aristocratic family falling into ruin. It's deceptively simple yet extremely powerful.
It tells of a mother who dies of TB, her daughter who wants to have a child of a drunken and conceited novelist her brother used to admire, and her brother who leads a decadent life and gradually destroys himself with drugs, alcohol, and women.
The...more
In the same fashion as his predecessors, Natsume Soseki (Kokoro) and Tanizaki Junichiro (Naomi), Dazai provides an insightful historical account in The Setting Sun, as much as he draws a story of intense emotional appeal. All three of these prominent novelists have written, so deftly, about a Japan in a period of great uncertainty amid rapid change. This change can be interpreted as a period of natural transition or one of unpredictable upheaval. Dazai's story is set in post-war Japan and recoun...more
In the days, weeks and months following 9/11 I had a really difficult time getting a grasp on reality. I pretty much walked around the city in a daze for quite a while not knowing what to make of any of it. I frankly still don't know what to make of any of it...
So I can't even imagine what it must have been like for not just the Japanese but for everyone to go from a pre-nukes world to witnessing the near annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This is the story of one aristocratic family in Japa...more
So I can't even imagine what it must have been like for not just the Japanese but for everyone to go from a pre-nukes world to witnessing the near annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This is the story of one aristocratic family in Japa...more
Of course I freaked out for all the knitting passages where she unravels a dusty rose scarf her mother had knit for her and starts a sweater... I loved the first half or so of the book. Loved anything with the mother, and the main narrator, but had a lot of trouble with the male characters. And the ending kind of blew it for me. By then I didn't care what happened to them. But beautiful writing at times, and great pace. Plants and animals and food were great, too.
This book about the 'victims of moral transition' as Osamu Dazai puts it himself was an enigma when I had only a dozen pages left. I couldn't tell what to make of it - it's either too good and I'll keep thinking about it for a couple of days or to bad to bother. It falls eventually in one piece by the end of the novel and I think it's good one. It reveals the hypocrisy of 'all people are the same' with humor and tenderness.
It's unfortunate that Dazai doesn't get widely read in this country, because this is some amazing shit. If Japan had a Rimbaud, it would be this dude. While it's an often bleak story of aristocratic life at loggerheads with the modern age, it's an unbelievably touching portrait of a family, akin to many of the Japanese films of the postwar era.
If I had read this a couple of years earlier I was not able to understand how great it was. The ending, actually the sense of salvation that I experienced in the end of this immense tale of sadness and suffering and perishing was unbelievable. Of course I experienced salvation exactly because of the road I have paved in my life until now and how I see life right now: I know what is pain and how it aches to be a human!
This book from mid-20th century Japan (translated) is a remarkable study of simple prose, depicting a "modern" woman's search for self and fulfillment. Distinctly Japanese, the cadence is exotic, language sparse and clean. An interesting piece that one might have to read several times in order to catch all of the nuances.
Overall, the book was good. I feel this translation wasn't the best. The writing came off as really dry and just kinda laid like a dead dog on the page. Reading only one other book of his (No Longer Human), I can see how his writing can be translated this way, but I feel with The Setting Sun, the translator missed the mark. Unlike No Longer Human, this one had a "happy ending." WIll mos def be reading Run Melos.
Slabă, subțire, cu sclipiri de idee pe alocuri.
Scriitură naivă, aproape adolescentină, nu convinge, pare superficială.
Structurată dezordonat. Nici reprezentativă pentru cultura Japoniei nu e. Scriitorul plutește deasupra unor teme arhidiscutate, fără a le arăta fețe noi, fără a trezi interes, fără putere a ideii sau scrierii. Îi lipsește pasiunea și puterea cuvintelor/expresiilor.
Tema principală sau, mai degrabă, „ancadramentul” lucrării este confuzia identitară a Japoniei postbelice (personaj...more
Scriitură naivă, aproape adolescentină, nu convinge, pare superficială.
Structurată dezordonat. Nici reprezentativă pentru cultura Japoniei nu e. Scriitorul plutește deasupra unor teme arhidiscutate, fără a le arăta fețe noi, fără a trezi interes, fără putere a ideii sau scrierii. Îi lipsește pasiunea și puterea cuvintelor/expresiilor.
Tema principală sau, mai degrabă, „ancadramentul” lucrării este confuzia identitară a Japoniei postbelice (personaj...more
Jul 10, 2011
Oliver
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
those with patience and an interest in Japanese literature
Super depressing, slow, and quiet. Of course, these aren't knocks when you're dealing with the aesthetics of Japanese lit. Contrasting that description, there's a surprising amount of what I'd call melodrama woven in, which kept me from getting as much out of it as I could have.
Family in a lyrical way is sad. In Dazai’s terms quiet depressive. The whole narration is in a very sad nearly cold tone of manners. This book tale about an aristocrat Japanese family seeing their lives falls into pieces after the war. I fall in love deeply with Kazuko character shown in her desperate letters to Uehara. A blend of desperation, love and the beauty of sadness in her do make her portrait rather sensuous. And yes, this novel is quite depressing in making people want to kill themselv...more
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His real name is Shuuji Tsushima. Although his father wanted him to be a politician, he insisted on being an author. When he applied to the Tokyo University French Literature Department, he was 20 years old. For most of his lifetime, he was a drug addict, an alcoholic and a sufferer of tubercolosis.
His last book Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human)(1948) is an authobiography. It documents his childh...more
More about Osamu Dazai...
His last book Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human)(1948) is an authobiography. It documents his childh...more
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“Last year nothing happened
The year before nothing happened
And the year before that nothing
happened.”
—
38 people liked it
The year before nothing happened
And the year before that nothing
happened.”
“To wait. In our lives we know joy, anger, sorrow, and a hundred other emotions, but these emotions all together occupy a bare one percent of our time. The remaining ninety-nine percent is just living in waiting. I wait in momentary expectation, feeling as though my breasts are being crushed, for the sound in the corridor of the footsteps of happiness. Empty. Oh, life is too painful, the reality that confirms the universal belief that it is best not to be born.”
—
13 people liked it
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I wouldn't have worshipped Kazuko's mother. She reminds me of my grandmother how...more
Apr 20, 2011 09:16am
Apr 20, 2011 09:41am