Currently Reading Wednesdays 24: Suicidal Poets Edition

[healyg]

Currently I'm reading Mishima: A Vision of the Void by Marguerite Yourcenar, about the life and death (mostly death) of infamous Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima. Truth be told, I didn't like it very much; there was this unfortunate snobbery that infected even the good parts of the book. And while Mishima's death by seppuku after a failed coup is certainly important in any discussion of the author, Yourcenar seems to treat it like the main event. The most embarrassing part, for me at least, is the chapter where she tries and fails to convince that Mishima wasn't a fascist. I also found the criticism of his books mostly vague and unhelpful, but that may be because I haven't read any of them yet.

Verdict: I should have checked out Confessions of a Mask instead.