Author: Osamu Dazai

Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo’s attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a „clown“ to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness.

Some may say that this book is an emotional rollercoaster and while I can agree with that to some point, I didn’t excactly feel too much emotions while reading it. Maybe that was because I sometimes couldn’t make complete sense of some parts or maybe because I can relate to how the protagonist feels from time to time. Still it was an amazing book that had an unexpected ending and in my opinion is Art itself.