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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Before reading this book I was told it was 'seriously screwed up, but good.' Not a desciption too far wrong, but nonetheless could be elaborated on.
Confessions of a Mask is an autobiographical novel recounting Mishima's childhood upto about the age of twenty-five. He was born in 1925, so there is ample insight into Japanese life before and during the Second World War. Though Mishima was apathetic in regard to the war, he cared much about it from an individual point of view: for him the war represented the perfect chance to end his life, both heroically and alone.
His private fascinations with death, blood and gore pervade the book, and are inseparable from his suppressed homosexuality. Sexuality is the crux of this work; the book starts with Mishima's sexual awakening, and his surprise at its nature. From then on there is a divide between his private life, and his life in public, at school, with family. On his own he dreams of Saint Sebastian, his heroism and his martydom, yet with his friends he wears a mask, pretending an obsession for women. He takes this facade very seriously, and even engages in a catastrophic affair with one of his friends' sister.
The ending is indefinite. That is, one can't tell if he still maintains a barrier between privacy and publicity. However, throughout the book Mishima always claimed that facade would become reality; it is with the rejection of this theory, and the acceptance of his own sexuality, that the book ends.
Confessions of a Mask is an autobiographical novel recounting Mishima's childhood upto about the age of twenty-five. He was born in 1925, so there is ample insight into Japanese life before and during the Second World War. Though Mishima was apathetic in regard to the war, he cared much about it from an individual point of view: for him the war represented the perfect chance to end his life, both heroically and alone.
His private fascinations with death, blood and gore pervade the book, and are inseparable from his suppressed homosexuality. Sexuality is the crux of this work; the book starts with Mishima's sexual awakening, and his surprise at its nature. From then on there is a divide between his private life, and his life in public, at school, with family. On his own he dreams of Saint Sebastian, his heroism and his martydom, yet with his friends he wears a mask, pretending an obsession for women. He takes this facade very seriously, and even engages in a catastrophic affair with one of his friends' sister.
The ending is indefinite. That is, one can't tell if he still maintains a barrier between privacy and publicity. However, throughout the book Mishima always claimed that facade would become reality; it is with the rejection of this theory, and the acceptance of his own sexuality, that the book ends.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Kamen no kokuhaku is a claustrophobic account of the experiences of a man unable to come to terms with his own desires and identity. It is a powerful work on the stranglehold that conventionality has on personal growth. Kochan, the novel's protagonist reflects Mishima's own troubled personality in this work but this is much more than an autobiographical novel. Kochan's struggle with his homosexual impulses comes about because of his desire to conform to 'social norms.' His failure to accept his own nature has unfortunate consequences not only for his own happiness but that of others, in particular, a friend's sister. Kochan may present an extreme case, being obsessed with bondage and suicide as he is, but we all wear a mask to some extent in our daily lives. This becomes apparent to us when we are unexpectedly confronted with 'contradictions' in our behaviour which varies in different social settings. 'You are who you pretend to be', at least to others. One message from this novel is that if you sacrifice your own nature to social conformity the result is self-destructive behaviour and regret. Kochan is an extreme example, but the suppression of personal feelings for social acceptability is a universal theme which this novel evokes in a compelling fashion. This book is nothing should of a masterpiece.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A truly stunning, semi-autobiographical novel. The story follows a young man torn between, on the one hand, his desire to fit into a heavily conformist society and on the other, his 'unconventional' base passions. This is a dark novel filled with sexual tension that gives a clear insight into the emotional conflict that characterises Mishima's own life, yet it is delivered, in stark contrast, in a beautifully delicate style of prose (hats off to the translator!). The contrast only adds to the slightly disturbing quality of the novel. The style is slightly self absorbed (as is most Japanese fiction of the same period), but this is a book that any lover of literature will almost certainly enjoy. After this one, you will want to read Forbidden Colours by the same author.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Confessions of a Mask
A really great book, I had no idea what to expect when I first started reading it; it was like nothing I'd read in English literature before. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Z. Vincent
Wince with Care
Mishima; icy, soulless, a frame without a picture?- naturlich
Why decry a strength?
Correspondingly he dissects his early life with the aplomb of a 19th... Read more
Why decry a strength?
Correspondingly he dissects his early life with the aplomb of a 19th... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Dr. Delvis Memphistopheles
Identity
The semi-autobiographical story of an outsider; who fits into society by hiding behind a mask of conformity while struggling with his identity. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Bama70
Unexpectedly good
Like probably many readers, I first came to read Mishima's work through watching Paul Schrader's movie about him. Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2009 by lexo1941
Low quality print for a classic
This is the American English translation first published in 1958. This 2007 reprint opens with a short foreword written by Paul Binding. Read more
Published on 12 Aug 2009 by Ikarus
'Mishima is the Japanese Hemingway'.
-----------------------------------
Long regarded as one of the most important novels to appear in post-war Japan, Confessions of a Mask, is an allegory of a lonely... Read more
Long regarded as one of the most important novels to appear in post-war Japan, Confessions of a Mask, is an allegory of a lonely... Read more
Published on 2 July 2008 by S. Emery
Essential Mishima.
This book is a most direct and crisp window onto Mishima's world and along with Sun and Steel represents an essential insight into his life.
Published on 1 Dec 2001
Cold and intellectual
Mishima's tell-don't-show style really grates with me. And he has all the sympathy for his main character (his younger self) of a butterfly collector with a prize specimen. Read more
Published on 23 Mar 2000 by "simon7261"
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