The Temple of Dawn (The Sea of Fertility)
by Yukio Mishima
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of The Temple of Dawn.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 186)
Read in March, 2004
The third in a series of four, this book follows Shigetoshi Honda in middle age, first as he meets a Thai princess whom he believes is Kiyoaki/Isao’s reincarnation and later as he becomes obsessed with her. The earlier parts of the book were rather dull, more like a textbook describing various aspects of Buddhist beliefs about reincarnation than a novel. But then I almost wished the book had stayed dry, because reading about Honda’s unhappy middle age and unhealthy fascination and voyeuris...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2005
I read this in Thailand because I was looking for a book in Ko Phagnan and saw that the first chapter opened in the royal palace in Bangkok, where I had just been days before. This is a haunting, painful -- and I mean, heartwrenchingly painful -- book. Mishima, even in translation, is so raw, and he is meticulous in describing the psychology of his characters -- so much, that you sometimes don't want to know any more. A must read. This book will stay with you for a long time.
I read this ...more
I read this ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
The third book in the "Sea of Fertility" series, a huge departure from the first two. In the first two we lived vicariously through tragic heroes, along with Honda - now we live vicariously through Honda himself and see firsthand, in a sense, the loneliness of voyeurism (while the first two were voyeuristic in the rigorous etymological sense, this one is voyeuristic in that he actually looks through holes in walls a bathing beauties). The dreams of this novel's Kiyokai reincarnation ar...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2007
The gaze is inverted: this one's about Honda.
In the first part, before the war, Honda is a Japanese tourist floating through Siam and India. The war comes and Honda spends the entirety of it studying reincarnation. Tadeshina (from vol. 1) eats a raw egg.
In the second part, after the war, Honda is a voyeur, and watches everyone else have sex. 57 years old, he convinces himself he is in love with the Thai princess, and he transforms into a Humbert. For a few chapters, we, the readers, even...more
In the first part, before the war, Honda is a Japanese tourist floating through Siam and India. The war comes and Honda spends the entirety of it studying reincarnation. Tadeshina (from vol. 1) eats a raw egg.
In the second part, after the war, Honda is a voyeur, and watches everyone else have sex. 57 years old, he convinces himself he is in love with the Thai princess, and he transforms into a Humbert. For a few chapters, we, the readers, even...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in November, 2007
I'm singularly unimpressed by the translation, which for me is distractingly awkward. But the ideas shine through, plummeting the reader back into Honda's mind. Honda the observer becomes I, the observer as the fateful events begin to announce themselves in the first chapter.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
This was always my favorite Yukio Mishima, and I live in Bangkok so I can always go see the temple in the title whenver I want and think to myself, wow, Mishima stood here once.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2005
recommends it for:
everyone
I liked this book very much.. better than the second of the four books in this series.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2002
I want to re-read this one.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
