Okay, i admit it. Here's an another modern literature author, but it's what i read these times. I promise, i'll write about a classical novel soon. :)
I don't want to talk a lot about Mishima's life, a little trip on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima) will give you complete information about his life. What i want to talk about here are his wonderful short stories.
It was with pure chance that my eyes stopped in front of a short stories book of a japanese author.Usually, europeen short stories are plus atractives for me, i don't know why (^^') but i was pretty curious when seeing Mishima's book, so i bought it. And you know what? After finishing the book, i went to the bookstore and bought an another short stories book of Mishima. :)
Why short stories? Because before buying a novel, i prefer discover an author with his/her short stories except when the author doesn't write short stories at all. :) And secondly, i take bus ans subway every day to go to university, so short stories are pratical for the travel. :)
Okay okay, i'll stop chatting to talk about Mishima's short stories. :)
I love the atmosphere created by Mishima: dense, heavy and light at the same time, a little bit nostalgic. His characters are rich in emotions, strage and surprising in their way of thinking, sometimes contained, sometimes explosive.
In "Butterfly", the tone is for nostalgia, the character is passive and calm, he containes a platonic love for a married woman. The whole story is a calm long river but very dense and it obliges you to follow the flow until the end. And the end leaves you in your own reflexion, in questions about your life, in a strage feeling.
With "Lioness", Mishima offers us a real portrait of japanese femme fatal: beautiful, intelligent, passionate and, surely, dangerous. A character torn between love and hatred, painted ingeniously.
An another femme fatal portrait, this time, more pathetic, more desperate in "Dojoji". A weird play (yes, Mishima write plays, too) which shows us how a woman can appear unreasonable, immoral and strage when she's in love.
Some japanese folklores with "seven bridges", a weird story that leaves you with this strage feeling you have when a film or a song is unfinished, however the story would be bad if Mishima continued it, if he would added some details, some circumstances. This story is just a jewel.
Violence, love, patriotism, innocence, and passion are poetically paint in "Patriotism". Never a Seppuku can be more beautiful, more meaning and more horrible than that of lieutenant Shinji. Never a sexual act can be more poetic, more passionate, more pure and more graceful than that between the lieutenant Shinji and Reiko, his wife. There is something pasionate, something innocent and unfinished in this story, a real beautiful one.
Once more time, a modern author leaves me wordless with his stories. If you're a fan of litterature which is light, dense, nostalgia, with unfinished feeling, with a combination of delicacy and rough style, Mishima is your author!!
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