The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea - Yukio Mishima

The story of a widowed mother who falls in love with a sailor. The widow's son is part of a band of teenage outcasts, who at first see the sailor as a hero but turn against him after he unwittingly breaks their code of honour.

So let's start with a look at the author. Yukio Mishima has a led a life much more interesting than most. He was born and raised in a Boshido (Samurai) family, and learnt the strict moral codes that he would live his life by. He became an author, and started writing his series of novels called The Sea of Fertility, and regularly said he would die the day he was finished. Then he kidnapped a general on a military base, which didn't work out. But the same day he help his coup, he finished his series of books, and committed Seppuku (Honourable suicide). Some people believe it was because his rebellion failed, but he had promised he would do it on this day for years. He was obsessed with death, and his books show this. It is a theme that runs through many of his works, and this one is no exception. It is widely thought his death brings together his life and art in an unbreakable unity.

To expand on the story a little bit - Noboru discovers peep hole in his room which allows him to see into his mothers room. He is weirdly into this, and watches her change a few times. Then one evening she has a guest. He is a sailor, and Noboru watches the couple with intense joy, being a somewhat overly curious 13 year old. Noburo treats the sailor as a hero, he and his gang of friends agree that the sea is one of the few things in life it is permissible to like. They have an odd code of rules, which is never explained and almost completely incomprehensible. So the sailor proposes to Noboru's mother and tries his best to be a good father figure to Noboru, which exposes him as being romantic and weak. To the boys this in unforgivable. The Chief already doesn't like fathers, and a weak father is utterly shameful, so they plan horrific revenge.

This is a satisfying enough story to take at face value, but there seems to be a million ways people read into this book. Written just after World War II, it is commonly viewed to be an allegory for Japan after the war. There is the new, westernised Japan, the old, traditional Japan, the failed military Japan and a few others in there as well.This is how I read the book, and the interpretation I find most feasible especially considering how Mishima was raised, and his policital actions later in life.

The writing is great. There's a lot of little tricks Mishima has included, such as the constant contradictions, such as summer & winter, sea & land, femininity and masculinity. I easily got lost in the prose and the narrative, and could have read this in one sitting, had I been able to find the time. Obviously part of the credit here goes to the translator, John Nathan, who even came up with the title for this English translation - the Japanese one is apparently completely untranslatable. A lot of thought has gone into his work and it come across in the read.

So this was a great little book. It is widely considered a classic along with Mishima's other works. I liked it a lot, it is definitely remembered for a reason and will be for years to come. For me though, it is just short of being a total masterpiece. I can't think of any clear definite faults, but it just misses that spark that makes it a book I will love for years to come. I will probably read it again though, and it is not one I will forget in a hurry.