Osamu Dazai

Novel of present day Japan. Reaction of an upper-class family to the war and the resultant cultural impact.

The Setting Sun

This powerful novel of a nation in social and moral crisis was first published by New Directions in 1956. Set in the early postwar years, it probes the destructive effects of war and the transition from a feudal Japan to an industrial society. Ozamu Dazai died, a suicide, in 1948. But the influence of his book has made "people of the setting sun" a permanent part of the Japanese language, and his heroine, Kazuko, a young aristocrat who deliberately abandons her class, a symbol of the anomie which pervades so much of the modern world.

aybüke

I must go on living. And, though it may be childish of me, I can’t go on in simple compliance. From now on I must struggle with the world. I thought that Mother might well be the last of those who can end their lives beautifully and sadly, struggling with no one, neither hating nor betraying anyone. In the world to come there will be no room for such people. The dying are beautiful, but to live, to survive—those things somehow seem hideous and contaminated with blood. I curled myself on the floor and tried to twist my body into the posture, as I remembered it, of a pregnant snake digging a hole. But there was something to which I could not resign myself. Call it low-minded of me, if you will, I must survive and struggle with the world in order to accomplish my desires.

“I don’t understand the world.” Mother turned her face away. She spoke in a low voice, almost to herself.

“I don’t either. I wonder if anyone does. We all remain children, no matter how much time goes by. We don’t understand anything.”

Doesn’t that mean in effect that I have no choice but suicide?In spite of my suffering, at the thought that I was sure to end up by killing myself, I cried aloud and burst into tears.

There is the story of how on a morning in spring as the sun shone on a branch of plum where two or three blossoms had opened, a young student of Heidelberg was dangling from the branch, dead.

 “They say that people who like summer flowers die in the summer. I wonder if it’s true.” I did not answer but went on watering the eggplants. It is already the beginning of summer. She continued softly, “I am very fond of hibiscus, but we haven’t a single one in this garden.”

        “We have plenty of oleanders,” I answered in an intentionally sharp tone.

        “I don’t like them. I like almost all summer flowers, but oleanders are too loud.”

        “I like roses best. But they bloom in all four seasons. I wonder if people who like roses best have to die four times over again.”

𓂃 𓈒𓏸

“As long as you love me, all I want is to spend my whole life by your side.”

eleanthi 

It’s no use. I'm going. I cannot think of the slightest reason why I should have to go on living. Only those who wish to go on living should. Just as a man has the right to live, he ought also to have the right to die.

the japanese have an identity crisis after the war, told through a woman with mommy-issues. 

surprisingly forward since it was published in 1947 for showing how much 'weaker' men are and vulnerable to vices and misery than women who stay a stable figure and persists and live through any tragedy

I found it's description of grieving even while the person you grieve for is still alive very...real, it was comforting in that regard.

william wukkuan

the japanese have an identity crisis after the war, told through a woman with mommy-issues. 

surprisingly forward since it was published in 1947 for showing how much 'weaker' men are and vulnerable to vices and misery than women who stay a stable figure and persists and live through any tragedy

I found it's description of grieving even while the person you grieve for is still alive very...real, it was comforting in that regard.

And I hereby to say I hate this book for depressing purposes

Matcha Donut

Took me forever to finish this idk why I really liked no longer human but I’ve been so stuck with this one 

Kat 

felt empathy towards Kazuko’s feelings of longing and the flashbacks as a way of fleshing out the identities of the character truly made each one feel really whole

Lettuce Wrapped Cabbage Cat

This is what happened when a high born aristocrats fell into addiction which result in poverty and whining about it and is very meta of dazai. the dying mother is a metaphor for dazai aristocracy's slow suicide 

solitones

斜陽

Setting Sun, The

azliana aziz

i feel like the triumph of this book is in the sophistication of the form that goes hand in hand with the themes of identities and persona. fumiko enchi crafted her story adroitly and in true matter of fact affection but still managed to be prickly as hell.


am actually pretty mad at myself for reading this one only now.

Not a match for “No Longer Human”, I found this bleakness in this story less poignant.  

Xiang

tragic figuresn awfully flawed. kazuko man

weli 

Dazai because of his own struggles in life he has found a way to portray the world in its true form.He portrays the miserable life that someone can experience, someone that is constantly trying to find a will to live. In this book he portrays it beautifully.This novel set in the early postwar years tells the story of the main character Kazuko and her family of a mother and brother former aristocrats that live now in poverty.Kazuko not having found a person to truly love which is a thing she really yearns to,is trying to overcome the struggles in life as she lives in a nation of social and moral crisis.She is constantly doubting if there is a point in living and desires to discover love at the same time as taking care of her sick and slowly dying mother.Someone who Kazuko has never been able to get along with, that in my interpretation, is just another tragic hero of this story that struggles to go on with his own life is her brother. Naoji her brother having gone to war, and being a drug addict slowly converting into alcoholism is shown as arrogant and as someone who doesn’t care a about his family but portrayed having his own struggles

I really liked this book

Dazai because of his own struggles in life he has found a way to portray the world in its true form.He portrays the miserable life that someone can experience, someone that is constantly trying to find a will to live. In this book he portrays it beautifully.This novel set in the early postwar years tells the story of the main character Kazuko and her family of a mother and brother former aristocrats that live now in poverty.Kazuko not having found a person to truly love which is a thing she really yearns to,is trying to overcome the struggles in life as she lives in a nation of social and moral crisis.She is constantly doubting if there is a point in living and desires to discover love at the same time as taking care of her sick and slowly dying mother.Someone who Kazuko has never been able to get along with, that in my interpretation, is just another tragic hero of this story that struggles to go on with his own life is her brother. Naoji her brother having gone to war, and being a drug addict slowly converting into alcoholism is shown as arrogant and as someone who doesn’t care a about his family but portrayed having his own struggles

This book has a very nice flow to it. It also contains some of the most beautyful passages i have ever read. Made me cry. Truly reccomend ;)

Martina

This work depicts the decline of the Japanese nobility after World War II. It focuses on Kazuko and her brother Naoji, and their elderly mother. The story shows a family in decline and crisis, like many other families during this period of transition between traditional Japan and a more advanced, industrial society. Many families needed to leave their old lives behind and start anew. Through the character Naoji, the author brings up a number of social and philosophical problems of that time.

The story was poignant, heart-wrenching. Dazai Osamu is really great in weaving sorrow and depression through subtle violence but humane in nature. Sometimes a change is a fearsome thing to face.

Gilbert

my first book of the year, and my third book from osamu dazai. one thing that will never fail to amaze me when i pick up anything from dazai is that how much i feel for the characters he write about. it's absurd of how i can actually feel the pain about the grief he writes, of having to sit beside your beloved mother that has always favoured the other sibling despite how much you've done for her, yet you are still the less half. i have to say that his works have become more of a personal effect that has taken upon me, and taken comfort in my very core.

maia

on the last day of the cursed year that is 2022, i did not expect to pick this up and like it 

. i did not, after all, enjoy 'no longer human' all that much*.

'the setting sun' is a reflection of the dusk of japanese aristocracy and the struggle of the upper echelons to adjust to the new times. i am rare to sympathise with the aristocracy - however, dazai's depection is incredibly empathetic to the point where one cannot help but be immersed within the struggles of kazuko and her family.

the novel is an excellent and gripping (in spite of its shortness) family drama that represents a pivotal moment of japanese history.

*perhaps having a female character as the p.o.v. helped lessen the moments of misogyny which lets the reader immerse themself better into the novel.

on the last day of the cursed year that is 2022, i did not expect to pick this up and like it this much. i did not, after all, enjoy 'no longer human' all that much*.

'the setting sun' is a reflection of the dusk of japanese aristocracy and the struggle of the upper echelons to adjust to the new times. i am rare to sympathise with the aristocracy - however, dazai's depection is incredibly empathetic to the point where one cannot help but be immersed within the struggles of kazuko and her family.

the novel is an excellent and gripping (in spite of its shortness) family drama that represents a pivotal moment of japanese history.

*perhaps having a female character as the p.o.v. helped lessen the moments of misogyny which lets the reader immerse themself better into the novel.

Hellboy TCR

Novel takes a turn for the worse in chapter 4, I have no clue why. I tried one more chapter. Done.

this book is kind of boring. i like dazai’s writing style, but his novels tend to be more intrapersonal than plot based. 

The Setting Sun

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