Confessions of a Mask (Penguin Modern Classics)

Beautiful book, Japanese authors make such great books. I read this and I'd give it a 3.9/5 (just a point away because the writing style was hard to follow but that's just me plus the text has been translated from orginal Japanese characters) Kochan's sense of self and a part of him that seeks to be understood between his self and his ego, the story is poignant and melancholic.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in books that push the limits of literature and societal norms. This book is definitely not an easy read. It is a disturbing novel that will agitate even seasoned readers. Mishima’s use of language is impressive. Each word is carefully selected to create a written style that is direct, profound.

Like probably many readers, I first came to read Mishima's work through watching Paul Schrader's movie about him. The Schrader movie is a complex and beautiful work of art in itself, but my attempts to read Mishima were mostly focused on his enormous tetralogy 'The Sea of Fertility', which I gather is not usually regarded as his greatest single work. I put off reading 'Confessions of a Mask' because it sounded a bit pretentious, but much to my surprise it turns out to be very good; what some readers take to be Mishima's 'coldness' I regard as his lucidity, and despite his obvious involvement and sympathy with his hero, Mishima (unlike Salinger, another writer on a mission) manages not to give in to the temptation of trying to make the reader worship his main character. There is an unexpected level of dry irony and wit, which is probably one of the reasons why Mishima was so popular in the West in the first place. Come to think of it, this level of irony is present in nearly everything Mishima ever did. Even his suicide was self-consciously farcical; did he really think he could get a suburban Japanese army garrison in 1970 to revolt and seize power in the name of the emperor?I was surprised that I liked the book because I normally like to read modern fiction in the original, and having no Japanese I was wary of how much of Mishima's actual or supposed genius would come across in a target language very, very different from the original. But 'Confessions of a Mask' is a damn good book in translation.

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 short of a masterpiece.

Wonderful book. Both about a Japanese young boy and about a universal young one. I deeply appreciated the insightful approach and the way it was conveyed into writing. Excellent quality literature.

One of the more famous novels by Mishima, the book is a poetic exploration of the soul, the inner personality of the narrator, who the reader comes to know as Kochan. Admittedly, for this reader, the journey we take with the protagonist, his intense self-analysis regarding his true sexuality, at once gruesome and strange, including his fantasy life from a young boy towards manhood is quite uncomfortable in its honest and descriptive detail. In the beginning, the narrator communicates that he recalls his birth. The detailed descriptions of being bathed in a small, wooden tub, illustrating how the morning light reflects off a droplet of water dangling from the basin's edge, is really quite beautiful. At this early point in the biography, no more than a toddler, we feel the child's contradictions in memory and truth.Later the young child comes across a painting of a knight on a horse, fitted with body armor and a long sword welding triumphantly in the sky. At first, he treasures this painting representing to the boy the idea of manliness, hiding it from his grandparents, to later discover that it's a portrait of Joan of Arc. Once told of this reality, the boy immediately discards the work, never to view again. On the surface, for a young lad, this could well be disappointing, but Kochan's visceral reaction goes way beyond what we generally would consider normal.As a young man in boarding school, he comes to feel what is “love.” for another boy. The older classmate, known as Omi, represents everything that our narrator is not healthy, strong, defiant, and exuding self-confidence. The boy's do connect, only once in a game of physical engagement. The game turns out to be a kind of draw, and Omi finally acknowledges our protagonist. This is Kochan's first “boyhood love,” and the prose used to describe this pubescent love, at times, I found quite moving.However, Kochan's inner fantasy life borders on true sadism, which could well put off certain readers. He often returns to a painting of St. Sebastian, depicting the saint hanging from a tree, his arms crossed above him, in the throes of death. The painting comes to be the central point or apotheosis of all Kochan's sexual fantasy life.Our narrator's first female love, Sonoko, is the younger sister of his best friend. Here in the story, Kochan's inner conflicts of identity and sexuality turn more anguished and confusing. Their exchanges though subtle, reveal a connection of a type from the very beginning of their relationship. I believe that Kochan does indeed love Sodoko, but leads her on in an egoistic manner: leading Sodoko to believe he is someone else other than who he actually is – she falls in love with his “mask,” and to a certain degree, Kochan finds pleasure in this deception. Though the two never marry each other, Sodoko finally does after the war to another, and surprising to the both of them, they continue to meet, only to talk and simply be in each other's company. The narrator's continued inner analysis of the true nature of love and sexual love is expressed notably during this section of the novel.Yukio Mishima was an intriguing individual: actor, playwright, model, filmmaker, and ideologically an imperialist – right wing. He organized his own militia as a revolutionary force, combating what he thought were the unnecessary western influences in Japan. This militia failed miserably, and soon later, Mishima committed seppuku, Japanese ritual suicide in 1970.Confessions of a Mask reminded me of the unrelenting and honest self-analysis of the great authors of the 19th century – Dostoevsky and the German philosopher Fredric Nietzsche.Excellent.

Siempre tuve la curiosidad de checar este autor y no he quedado decepcionado con su obra, advierto que este libro no es para todo el público debido a la sensibilidad de los temas que maneja cómo lo es la sexualidad pero si es algo que no te llega a molestar creo que es un buen comienzo para empezar a leer las obras de Yukio Mishima