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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62796.The_Decay_of_the_Angel?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Decay of the Angel (The Sea of Fertility)" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1170606208m/62796.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62796.The_Decay_of_the_Angel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Decay of the Angel</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/35258.Yukio_Mishima">Yukio Mishima</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6691583?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 5 of 5 stars<br/>Decay of the Angel is the stunning final to the Sea of Fertility series. Honda seeks to save yet another reincarnation from death at 20 years. He hopes to achieve this by turning him into a cynic deprived of beauty, since that's what he figures drove the others to their doom. The boy he adopts is a hyper intelligent, manipulative jerk, who may or may not have been born too early to actually be the reincarnation. <br/> <br/>What's great in this series of novels, is that it's not only the story itself that is of significance. Just compare the long passages describing prewar Japan in the first two books, with the way a soulles, corrupt and Westernised Japan is seen here. It's all talk of holy places being defiled by tourists and Cola machines all over the place. The decay takes many forms in Mishima's last novel. <br/> <br/>The ending haunts not only this book, but hangs over the entire Sea of Fertility as a spectre. It may seem cheap at first, especially after the undertaking of reading all these books, but it's more significant the more you think about it. If anything, it makes sure I'm going to reread all of them, and pay more close attention to the Buddhist philosophy passages in the third, the Temple of Dawn. <br/> <br/>Unlike the first book in the series, it's impossible to read this one as a stand-alone. Only here does the scope and sprawl of the four novels become completely apparent. As a reward and last stand, it's a complete knockout. <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/75094?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>