Some thoughts on "no longer human" by Ozamu Dasai
Heya!
So, were doing the gazette book club again - this time for no longer human.
How did I like it? Id say it was pretty good.
Its a fairly short book, all in all took maybe about 3 hours? I didnt time myself, but thats what id say if i had to guess.
I really enjoyed the prose of this one. I was reading the english version obviously, so i cant say for sure how the original holds up in that regard, but what I did read I really liked. The main character yozo, through whose narration we experience this story, is written incredibly convincingly. If you had told me this was a 1:1 account of events, Id have believed you. Now, it sort of is that, as it is loosely based of Ozamu Dasais life, but emphasis here is on the word loosely. Yozo is still definitely a seperate character with a seperate life from that of Ozamu, even if his story is quite similiar in many regards.
One thing about the book i found especially fascinating is that, throughout the whole thing I did find myself at least empathetic of Yozo. Objectively, he is a terrible person who does some pretty awful things throughout the story, but you can see why he acts the way that he does, and I could relate to some of his thoughts. He sucks, but he sucks in a way that is very human, in a way that lets you understand his decisions, and I appreciate that.
Now, would I recommend this book? Well... Maybe? I think you definitely have to be in the mood for it. Id say its an interesting story, and I definitely dont regret reading it, but Im not sure if I could say its an entertaining one. The book is essentially three hours of Yozo repeatedly making terrible life choices. And while his thought process is interesting and his character well-written, I wouldnt exactly describe it as a gripping experience. I never closed the book wanting more. I guess thats due to it being a fairly "dry" retelling of things. You hear all of it from Yozos perspective, narrated after the fact, and you already know that things will go quite horribly wrong. As horrible as the decisions he makes are, none of them are really suprising. I was never wondering what might happen next.
And thats not really a criticism of the book, either. Seeing someone actively ruin their life for three hours isnt the kind of experience youd be raring to jump back into. So, if you know what youre getting into, if youre interested in seeing someone in a horrible situation make terrible but fully understandable decisions for three hours straight, then go read the book. You have to be in the right mindset for it. Its a really interesting look into someone elses mind, and a great example of a very well written character. But its not the kind of thing I would recommend out of the blue, thats for sure.
Still, id give it a 7/10 if i had to put it on some arbitrary numeric scale. Do with that what you will, i suppose.