Persona: A Biography of Yukio Mishima

An 800-page biography of a challenging writer will not always make for a compelling tale, but Mishima (1925–70) led a life that continues to intrigue. This study of his life and death takes off almost immediately with an ominous air of mystery and moves toward the author's ultimate suicide by seppuku (disembowelment). Mishima overcame his destiny as a Japanese bureaucrat to become a Nobel Prize-nominated novelist and a figure whose talents and philosophies are still debated today. From this biography the reader gains a great sense of the milieu from which Mishima arose, the approaches he took in his cutting-edge writing, and his increased fascination with conservative, hypermasculine Japanese traditions. Inose (vice governor of Tokyo; The Century of Black Ships) explores Japan's nationalism as well as cultural notions of pride and shame, educating the reader about recurring themes that would emerge again in the work of later novelists such as Haruki Murakami.