After the Banquet by Yukio Mishima (EPUB)

Description

1963 1st American ed., Knopf HARDCOVER, 274pp, 8v.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐On this date, November 25, 1974, one of the most important songwriters of the last few generations, Nick Drake died, perhaps by his own hand, perhaps by a negligent medicinal misadventure.On November 25, 1970, Yukio Mishima on the day he completed the final volume of his tetralogy,The Sea of Fertility, the same day of his failed coup attempt (!), Mishima retreated to the occupied commandant’s office and committed seppuku.My first Mishima was Spring Snow, the first of his final series of four. I have since embarked on a roughly more chronological traversal of all his work.Kazu Fukazawa, the proprietress of the Setsugoan resort in Tokyo, is the self-made woman at the heart of After The Banquet. She has lived enough, achieved enough, at 50 that she feels no need for a man in her life. When she meets the retired elder statesman, the stoic and impassive Noguchi, she is possessed by the need to care for him. Their relations are an epitome of reserve. Kazu really springs into action when Noguchi decides to run for Governor of Tokyo (or was it her idea?). It is on this rarified stage where Mishima’s rich play of female submission versus self-actualization takes place.The political insights of Noguchi;s campaign manager and Kazu’s confidant, Yamazaki,stand up well:”I have been wallowing in the bog of politics for a long time, and I have in fact come to be quite fond of it. In it corruption cleanses people, hypocrisy reveals human character more than half-hearted honesty, and vice may, at least for a moment, revive a helpless trust…Just as when you throw laundry into a centrifugal dryer, it rotates so fast that the shirt or underwear you’ve just thrown in vanishes before your eyes, what we normally call human nature instantly disappears in the whirlpool of politics. I like its fierce operation. It doesn’t necessarily purify, but it makes you forget what should be forgotten, and overlook what should be overlooked. It works a kind of inorganic intoxication. That is why, no matter how badly I fail, no matter what disastrous experiences I encounter, I shall never leave politics as long as I live.”Kudos to the superb English translation by Donald Keene.I’ve already started the next one in the ouevre, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea.

⭐I loved this book. A complex, well written relationship between an old man and a woman from a different background. It has dazzling moments like in chapter 7 and an unexpected end. For me, it is one of the best books written by Mishima.

⭐This translation conveys the indirectness and ambiguity that is characteristic of Japanese novels. The story is not complicated but the interior life of the protagonist adds richness to this tale of middle-age romance. A quick read that kept me interested.

⭐That Mishima wrote this just prior to the Sea of Fertility Tetralogy is baffling in how superficial and ordinary a story it is. The fish out of water theme of the strong female restaurantuer falling for the boring and principles in stone politician wasnt interesting in the least. If he was trying to display her strong attributes and an underbelly of Japanese culture in which the women are the true spines of society, then perhaps it had some merit.In comparison to his other work, it was weak and contrived. I am a big Mishima fan, and this was a letdown.

⭐I enjoyed this book. Mishima at his best when exploring the dichotomy of relationships society, politics, and championing the outsider or individual versus the times they are living.I really felt a kinship for the main character, highly recommended, especially to women not familiar with Mishima’s work.

⭐Wonderful story, fantastic writing, I could not put it down.

⭐Like the description said, the book was in very good condition.It has a kind of odd smell though. Haha the book was cheap and like new though.

⭐Written in 1960, After the Banquet was one of Mishima’s great literary successes in Japan. It followed the less than enthusiastic reception of Kyoko’s House, his most autobiographical novel since Confessions of a Mask. Critics complained that the characters in Kyoko’s House were simply slivers of Mishima’s complex personality rather than fully fleshed out literary creations. Perhaps in response to this, Mishima grounded the plot and dramatis personae of After the Banquet firmly in reality, so much so that he was sued for libel by the former foreign minister on whom he modeled the character of Noguchi.Noguchi is an aging liberal politician who enters into an affair with Kazu, the proprietress of a famous restaurant. The two of them marry, and since both of them are in the public eye, the marriage attracts a good deal of attention. They make an unlikely couple. Noguchi is dry, ascetic, reserved, aristocratic. Kazu is a country girl who worked her way up, wise to the warm and sweaty aspects of life, impulsive, generous, self-indulgent, noble, sneaky. Noguchi is persuaded to come out of retirement and run for governor on the Radical Party ticket. Though naïve about politics, Kazu is fully supportive: she throws the full force of her outgoing personality, as well as her considerable bank account, into her husband’s campaign.Mishima clearly understands how politics in Japan worked at that time, and much of the novel concerns itself with electoral tactics and dirty tricks. Japanese prefectural politics turn out to be not so different from American politics: incumbents use the full weight of the money and favors they amass to smother the opposition. Kazu is a much more natural politician than her reserved husband, and much more willing to do whatever it takes to win the election. Mishima, who almost always saw political allegiance as form of self- immolation, shows Kazu losing her money, her naivete, her reputation and important friendships in her reckless pursuit of victory. She is buffeted by conflicting desires: she loves and wants to obey her husband, but she can’t deny her need to succeed on her own terms. Tension fairly bursts out of her – she laughs, shouts, sweats, weeps, sings – and the reader sympathizes with this middle-aged woman’s struggles to create a social milieu where she can breathe.Perhaps because the story is mostly told from Kazu’s point of view, this is one of Mishima’s least philosophical novels. Even the political scenes are more about mechanics and maneuvering than about Japan’s place in the world or the role of the emperor or the code of the warrior – issues that came to preoccupy and then overwhelm Mishima. The writing is colloquial, sensual, and gently satirical. Mishima describes gardens in all weathers, the sapping humidity of a Tokyo summer, the chafe of clothing against full-figured snowy flesh. The plot rises and falls in a graceful arc, culminating with the election. In After the Banquet we are left with the impression of a great writer enjoying himself, not overly straining, but hitting the target nonetheless. If not Mishima’s most profound novel, it is one of his most enjoyable.

⭐beautiful writing.

⭐The story is about relationships between people separated by class, education, politics and desire. It is also about our desire to be something other than we are. If you want a fast paced and detailed plot this is not for you. If you want beautiful writing and a gentle and engaging story you will hopefully enjoy this as much as I did.

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