No Longer Human — Book Review
“No Longer Human” by Osamu Dazai is sort of an autobiographical story. It’s ranked among top fiction books of Japan. The story has been narrated in first person and taken from a series of notebooks (3 notebooks) written presumably by Yozo (the protagonist).
Yozo is a not a regular kid, born in a rich family he feels disconnected with the “humans” around him. To bridge that disconnect, he acts as a buffon around people. His personality is that of a deeply troubled and depressed person. This gets aggravated further when he goes to Tokyo where he indulges in one night stands, careless drinking and smoking inspired by Rubiyat of Omer Khayam and even uses those poems as captions for erotica he draws. He even experiments with Marxism and gets popular for his display of Marxist traits which he puts on just for show. His disconnect with humans is very profound. Sexually abused as a child he develops a certain distrust towards humans, and later on he even attempts su*cide along with his lover. He doesn’t trust humans with bloated egos. He believes that society is representation of an individual, and the society at large is evil and hence humans are evil.
This book is Yozo’s journey of unbecoming a human. His fight against his insecurities and anxieties. We tend to feel pity for this emotionally derailed person. The novel feels a gruesome literary work which Osamu derived from his own real life anxieties, fears and alienation. If you are sensitive to themes of anxiety and depression — this book should be avoided.
