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Title: Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima ISBN: 0-679-72240-8 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 April, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.43 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Standalone
Comment: No book sums up the austere, starkly proud side of Mishima's personality like Runaway Horses. Though it was written as part of the tetralogy and engineered stylistically and thematically for that purpose, it embodies its purpose, I think, better than any of the other three.
The style accentuates the theme. It's written in a more economical, less meandering way than Spring Snow, and the characters are more dynamic and quickly (though not sloppily) drawn. It has in common with Spring Snow an absolute mastery of the language, with no unneccesary details or sentences.
The character of Isao embodies the theme of patriotism without seeming to become its tool. He has a distinct personality, and it can be seen how his ideals stem from and compliment his inclinations. It never feels as though Mishima is putting words in his mouth (partly, though, because he is so much an aspect of Mishima). Some of his speeches are worth recording.
The final scene is masterfully described. The novel rises to a pitch and maintains it, painfully and beautifully, ending with one incredible sentence: "As he plunged the knife into his stomach, the sun exploded behind his eyelids."
Rating: 5
Summary: A brilliant masterpiece on its own...
Comment: The Runaway Horse has been criticized unfairly for its glorification of nationalistic and even fascist views. The word Kamikaze has become such a taboo in the modern western world that anything that touches even slightly on the subject would be condemned.
In this amazing book, Isao symbolizes the purity of life. All that's good is pure, and all that's pure is good. Thus is the belief of Isao, and eventually, of Mishima himself as evident of his suicide in 1970. Having said that, I do not expect this book to be understood by its English readers. The translation proves to be a great barrier but more importantly, the philosophy that is the core of this particular book is too distant for the modern Japanese readers, let alone readers in North America who have been sheltered from different cultures.
Runaway Horse describes meaning of the true Japanese samurai, or at least of what Mishima believes it is. A samurai is not after his own glory or achievements. His only goal is to be loyal to the Emperor and to God. He is a mere servant of these goals and his life could and should be given up to the Emperor upon request. Isao believes that the blade and the blood of the corrupt politicians will be a wake-up call to the Emperor to restore feudal Japan. Although naive and violent at times, Isao is a one-dimensional human being that follows the human goal of "being yourself", Being true to yourself is an impossible task for most people, and therefore Isao is the idealized human being. It also reflects the Japanese philosophy of simplicity. The problems of the modern day world are so complex that only the simplest actions would resolve them, complex actions would not only take time to execute, but would entangle the matters even more.
This book also displays the obsession with beauty that Mishima has. In his mind, beauty is worth giving up your life for. His ideas of beauty are expressed with the most sensuous and colorful images shaped by adjective upon adjectives. Mishima's writing style, especially when it involves this matter, is not for everyone. Patient readers with deep imaginations, though, will find it joyful as descriptions from the book spring from the wells of their minds and take flight before their eyes. Isao's suicide is a painting that has been painted a thousand times in my mind, along with the rising sun.
Rating: 5
Summary: Please do not "See just the tree, but not the forest"
Comment: "See just the trees, but not the forest" is an old Chinese saying, meaning to comprehend, and thus evaluate, things only from partial angles and views. To assess/critic, even compare any one of the 4 "Sea of Fertility" novels is to do just that. The 4 novels are all part of a grand design in a way very much like 4 movements from a symphony. Yes each novel stands on its own as a great literature accomplishment, but so does each movement of any symphony by Beethoven or Mahler. Now, I am not a write or a literature critic in any shape or form, but I have read the complete "Sea of Fertility" twice before, and am onto "Runaway Horses" for the third time now. Just want to remind every one that, these novels are not meant to be read individually.
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Title: The Decay of the Angel by Edward G. Seidensticker, Yukio Mishima ISBN: 0679722432 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 April, 1990 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima ISBN: 0679722416 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 April, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima, Estate of Ivan Morris ISBN: 0679752706 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 04 October, 1994 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima, Meredith Weatherby ISBN: 081120118X Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation Pub. Date: February, 1988 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea by John Nathan, Yukio Mishima ISBN: 0679750150 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 31 May, 1994 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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