The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

Sailor is OK but The Sea of Fertility is his best work by far (Spring Snow/Runaway Horses/The Temple of Dawn/The Decay of the Angel). Get it in the one-volume edition if you can, it was published by Penguin in 1985. Also his short stories are quite good, and "My Friend Hitler and other plays" is a must. He's not to everyone's taste but I like the richness of his writing:

"There were autumn cicadas in the evening groves, and the roar of the subway came through the calls of the birds. A yellow leaf dangled from a spiderweb on a branch far out over the swamp, catching a divine light each time it revolved. It was as if a tiny revolving door were floating in the heavens. We gazed at it in silence. I was asking what world would be opening beyond the dark gold each time it turned. Perhaps, as it revolved in the busy wind, it would give me a glimpse of the bustle in a miniature street beyond, shining through some tiny city in the air."

>>10000310
Yeah, that kitten part is grotesque, but it's meant to be. The young lad shouldn't be hanging around with this group of creeps, but he is and he fits in because he's a creep himself. The book left me feeling quite cold and depressed, it really could've all been avoided.

My favourite Mishima is The Sound of Waves but that's probably because I haven't read Confessions of a Mask, Forbidden Colours or the Sea of Fertility yet.

>>10000310
Sea of Fertility>Patriotism>Confessions of a Mask>Sailor>Golden Pavilion>Sun and Steel

>>10000491

The sailor was the epitome of masculine grace and strength to the boy, who was [made] fatherless [by the war]. He wanted that strength, and a father role. However, when the sailor becomes his father, he not only steals the feminine from the boy, but also subjugates himself to the feminine [and to western influences], thus crashing the boys dreams to the ground. In retaliation, the gang of boys [the postwar generation yearning for the glories of the past and the rigors of a warrior society] sentences/redeems him to a grisly death, which in Mishima's world is preferable to dying of old age or losing ones masculinity [t. sun and steel and the final book of Sea of Fertility].

>>10000448
Hey you got the isbn for the one volume ediiton?

>>10000709

978-0140069297