- Paperback: 160 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Paperback; New edition edition (29 Jun 1989)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140181628
- ISBN-13: 978-0140181623
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.4 x 1.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,332,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Thirst for Love (Vintage Classics)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Published in 1950 Thirst for Love was one of Mishima's early novels and written shortly after his Confessions of a Mask which had already gained him celebrated public acclaim. The novel is set on a ten acre property on the outskirts of Osaka owned by Yakichi, a retired businessman and widower in his sixties but wishing to return to traditional life living off the land. With Yakichi is his indolent intellectual son Kensuke and his wife Cheiko, daughter-in-law Asako (whose husband is in Siberia) 8 year old daughter Nobuko and 5 year old son Natsuo, and the recently widowed third daughter-in-law Etsuko. The household is completed by a young peasant maid Miyo and 18 year old gardener, Saburo. Mishima focuses on the relationships between the above especially Etsuko whose husband had been a very unfaithful philanderer and now Etsuko has become the mistress of her father-in-law, Yakichi. Her passionate obsession is for the young tanned and good looking gardener, Saburo. Saburo is a naïve innocent young man who is having a physical relationship with Miyo and unaware of Etsuko's obsession and jealousy. Mishima's contrasts the relationships in the household: the intellectual cynical detached relationship of Kensuke and Chieko and the physical but loveless relationship between Miyo and Saburo. The mix of love, sex, death, obsession, jealousy is central to a number of Mishima's works and Thirst for Love lacks appeal largely for the very detached manner the characters interact. Mishima's writing I enjoy and I have loved several of his other novels Confessions of a Mask, Spring Snow and Forbidden Colours but Thirst for Love is not as good. There are moments of brilliance such as the detailed account of a Festival with a Lion, green mane streaming and the frenzied activity of the half naked young men following behind. The ending was difficult to comprehend especially the physical tidying up by Yakichi and Etsuko, all rather odd to me. Thirst for Love is an appropriate title for there is no love in this book and to satisfy thirst I would suggest reading another of Mishima's novels.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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9 reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Haunting is a good description...
15 July 1999
Format:Paperback
The intensity of the jealousies and frustrations simmering under the surface of this superficially simple story explodes in the last few pages in a way which is surprising and shocking enough to linger in the memory.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Restrained elegance
23 Nov 1998
Format:Paperback
One of Mishima's more restrained works, "Thirst for Love" has a quiet elegance. As we follow the narrator down her lonely and doomed path, it is clear that we are in the hands of a skilled storyteller.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
.
11 Oct 1999
Format:Paperback
Mishima is a fascinating and intoxicating author to me, but I felt a little disappointed with Thirst for Love after having read the Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea. It seems less focused somehow; I found certain segments a bit dull and the end somewhat dissatisfying (not just because it wasn't "happy.") But, those are just the cons -- I still think this is quite a book. Etsuko's psychology is fascinating, and there are some great moments. Quality, unconventional stuff.
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