I Read Osamu Dazai's Books - Tragic Life, Tragic Stories

Always wanted to read No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai and then when I finally got to it, I ended up reading more of his works. My personal favorite (after No Longer Human of course) is The Setting Sun, the second half of which made me look at ALL his characters through an entirely different perspective. Although it's very tough to rate his books because they all feel so deeply autobiographical.
The 4 Osamu Dazai books I read:
No Longer Human: amzn.to/3WZZiTT
The Flowers of Buffoonery: amzn.to/3O31R68
The Setting Sun: amzn.to/3tXe9pJ
Schoolgirl: amzn.to/4aYMzJy
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[@manikdeepsingh4376]

No longer Human, a book with which i believe every reader can connect in their own way. It makes one think; wow i have thought or felt same way before. There is something so honest about it and on your face which made me remind it like troubling, dark version of Bukowski.

[@ReadADayClub]

Just yesterday my sister and I were talking about how similar, and in many ways different as well, Dazai's Yozo is to Bukowski's Chinaski. So many parallels can be drawn between them. Thank you for watching the video and sharing your thoughts. Really appreciate it. 🖤🌻

[@jpi2228]

thank you for really getting into Osamu Dazai's way of thought. He is a great author.

[@tealorturquoise]

Wouldn't have thought to read his books but afters your video I'm gonna add one to my tbr this year. ty

[@user-mf6lt1yd3d]

Great review, amreen! In contrast to the alienated, socially outcast characters that he portrays, many of us including me who read dazai start feeling less lonely because of the inexplicable solace and comfort that is found while reading & identifying some/many aspects of ourselves in his characters. They are reminiscent of the Dosteovsky's underground man or Raskolnikov. Be it yozo's words "human beings show their true nature when they are enraged" or the underground man's tirade "Can a man of perception respect himself at all". I think that's where the power of fiction authors like dazai, dostoevsky work so well in capturing human truths and emotions. Also, Would you believe if i say that dazai & mishima actually met each other? and mishima hated dazai (mishima describes this encounter in an audio interview which i believe is still in youtube) mainly for his political inclination. Strange that they both talked about similar themes pertaining to same kinda problems of post-war japan, yet in their own style & carrying different ideologies. "Peppermint candy" is a great complementary movie that goes well with dazai...being a novelist turned filmmaker, i highly doubt that lee-chang dong must have been heavily influenced by the works of dazai. Even his murakami's movie adaptation "Burning(2018)" portrays the cluelessness, social alienation of what happens around the world of the protagonist so well. Even ceylan's "Distant(2002)" is along the same lines.

[@AmandaCayunao]

Loved your review. I'm very drawn to his works, I don't know why, but his writing is like a magnet, I can't simply not stop reading. I'll subscribe to see more of your rewiews!

[@ReadADayClub]

Yes Amanda, that's just what his writing does. It's his truth, however distorted or not, that speaks to me the most. Thank you! :)

[@thetimetraveller7051]

Kafka once said in a letter to his friend, " I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for?" Osamu Dazai's No longer human was one of them.

[@ReadADayClub]

Ahhh yes, so true. Something about books being an axe for the frozen sea inside us. 👏💛

[@thedisappointedoptimist6916]

This book broke me. It broke me because the main character goes his whole life believing he isnt human, while having entirely human experiences. There are so many people like that, who go through life terrified and in a survivalistic mindset that they never realize they were just like everyone else.

[@ReadADayClub]

That is so true. Of the character and of people in the real world as well.

[@RagingHamster8330]

I have read no longer human a couple of times because I forgot I had read it the first time.

[@ReadADayClub]

I can totally relate to this. It's understandable too, because, at some level, maybe our brain doesn't want to remember the contents of the book.

[@RagingHamster8330]

@@ReadADayClub have you read temple of the golden pavilion?? It is brilliant. I also recommend the book drowning by yu dafu.

[@ReadADayClub]

Not yet read that one by Mishima; I still have to get to his tetralogy as well. Shame shame for not having read it yet but that's fine, in fact it's wonderful because that means I get the opportunity to experience it for the first time. Drowning by Yu Dafu is definitely going to be consumed very, very soon. Thanks a lot for these recommendations. :):)

[@Manjarisy]

I think the book is great '' NO LONGER HUMAN '' . I want too read it too . but things like this really create an impact in my life . the book seems depressing . on above having stress+ anxiety due to current things happening in my life . I seems to be confused about the books . they are emotionally Impactfull books which I don't know would be good for my depressed state of mind . but still i would give it a try for sure

[@Financezila]

I want a friend like you in my life

[@ReadADayClub]

Thank you. Flattered, and *blushing*. 😊😊

[@bacca7730]

I'd be interested to know how you recover after such heavy, dense and emotionally impacting novels? It's something I've always struggled with. I've tried to read lighter or pulpier novels after particularly gruelling books, but the change in quality means I often put them away and just jump into another dense book, even if I'm not quite ready.

[@ReadADayClub]

Yeah I know what you mean; books like No Longer Human and also The Setting Sun (Dazai's works of course) are quite disturbing to read. Those thoughts stay with you long after you've put the book down. Even though the emotionally-charged material makes its presence felt inside my head, it doesn't bother me. I feel like I come out of such books a better reader, maybe even a better, more mature and emotionally intelligent person. Authors like Osamu Dazai, Yukio Mishima, Dostoevsky, even Arundhati Roy are precisely the reason WHY I READ, why I started reading in the first place. Nothing could be closer to my reality and struggles and my view of the world than the literature I read.

[@BombaStic-nu3gc]

Japanese literature is ..just amazing man 😊.....just feeling like a 😳

[@depotemkin]

I was just finishing reading "No longer human" when this video came out. I liked the book, but I still did not understand what exactly tormented the main character, what was the reason for his apathy? Is it something innate or a consequence of upbringing? Or all of them together. By the way, in Russian this book is called «Confessions of an "inferior" person»

[@ReadADayClub]

The Russian title "Confessions of an INFERIOR Person" brings to mind Nietzsche and his ("superior") Ubermensch, his SUPERMAN, and how Yozo Oba can be seen as the opposite of that. The protagonist is tormented by one too many factors - depression, anxiety, feelings of alienation and isolation, existential dread. Innate forces indeed but brought forth by external circumstances. For example, was he not only neglected as a child but he was abused as well ("The agonies I have suffered night after night have made for a hell..." - from the book of course).

[@depotemkin]

@@ReadADayClub yes, absolutely true

[@user-ep3qo4ku3y]

Being born in an aristocrat family, His early childhood messed up with lack of attachment with parents and being abused by maids, later the wrong company (friend) in his early adult phase and being abused by most of the women in his life, alcohol and drug addiction, His wife being abused, there were a lot of reasons... i guess depression doesn't come from just one source, it's a result of too many wrong happenings.. and later his self destruction, low self esteem could be the reasons why he wanted to die so bad

[@alizayaftab2150]

I'm newbie in books reading, this will be my first book if i read it, also can you please tell me what should first i read " the setting sun" or " no longer human "?

[@ReadADayClub]

No Longer Human for sure. :)

[@alizayaftab2150]

@@ReadADayClub thanks 🤗

[@BombaStic-nu3gc]

Have you ever read Friedrich Nietzsche.....i m planning to read.....what u say....or suggest.. something good relted to philosophy... particularly modern philosophy...🙃