No Longer Human

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Parts 2
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Reads 14
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Parts 2
Time 13m

alienation dark dazai depression fiction nolongerhuman novel osamu osamudazai reality suicide

TW: Suicide Mention, Dark Reality, Depression.

Mine has been a life of much shame. I can't even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.

Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's 𝑁𝑜 𝐿𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝐻𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 narrates a seemingly normal life even while he himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo's attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality,, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moment of human connection and tenderness.

Semi-autobiographical, 𝑁𝑜 𝐿𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝐻𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 is the final completed work of one of Japan's most important writers, Osamu Dazai (1909-1948). The novel has come to "echo the sentiments of youth" (Hiroshi Ando, The Mainichi Daily News) from post-war Japan to the postmodern society of technology. Still one of the ten bestselling books in Japan, 𝑁𝑜 𝐿𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝐻𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 is a powerful exploration of an individual's alienation from society. 

Copyright © 1958 by New directions Publishing Corporation library of Congress Catalog Card Number : 58-9509All Rights Reserved

alienation dark dazai depression fiction nolongerhuman novel osamu osamudazai reality suicide

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