Patriotism

by Yukio Mishima, Geoffrey W. Sargent (Translator)

Overview

One of the most powerful short stories ever written: Yukio Mishima’s masterpiece about the erotics of patriotism and honor, love and suicide.

By now, Yukio Mishima’s (1925-1970) dramatic demise through an act of seppuku after an inflammatory public speech has become the stuff of literary legend. With Patriotism, Mishima was able to give his heartwrenching patriotic idealism an immortal vessel.  A lieutenant in the Japanese army comes home to his wife and informs her that his closest friends have become mutineers. He and his beautiful loyal wife decide to end their lives together. In unwavering detail Mishima describes Shinji and Reiko making love for the last time and the couple’s seppuku that follows.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780811218542
Publisher:	New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	02/24/2010
Series:	New Directions Pearls
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	60
Sales rank:	220,920
Product dimensions:	4.30(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) completed his first novel the year he entered the University of Tokyo and his last novel the day of his death. He is the author of numerous novels, stories, plays, and essays. Gore Vidal once said of him: “I only regret we never met, for friends found him a good companion, a fine drinking partner, and fun to cruise with.” Mishima committed suicide by ceremonial seppuku after a failed coup d’e´tat intended to restore pre-WWII power to the emperor of Japan.

Editorial Reviews

"The violence we are facing with such difficulty in our daily lives, he gives us simply in all its subcutaneous horror and myth."

The New York Times Book Review - Hortense Calisher

"A direct yet lyrical style devoted entirely to bringing out the elevated emotions of its two characters."

The Mookse and the Gripes - Trevor Berrett

The life of postwar Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima is stunningly dramatized here by Paul Schrader (American Gigolo). With a driving score by Philip Glass, this unconventional biopic is framed by Mishima's tragic final act while flashing back to his youthful self-transformation and interspersing boldly stylized re-creations of his works. Mishima's sole filmmaking venture, the prescient dramatic short Patriotism, offers an intriguing complement for larger collections.

—Jeff T. Dick

Library Journal

Remarkably beautiful, Mishima's style exploits every resource in the Japanese language, giving new life to unbroken literary tradition of a thousand years. He is unquestionably a modern writer, speaking to modern audiences...of a Japanese way of life that is completely intelligible, but completely remote. -- The Saturday Review

Donald Keene