Bridgman reviewed Life for Sale by 三島由紀夫
Review of 'Life for Sale' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I read an uncorrected proof version of this so the cover was very different from the one you see here. If you're looking for kinky sex, look elsewhere, there's none in this book.
It's better than I'd expected though the translation read like an early draft. I doubt it changed much in its final form; advance copies have usually been copyedited, they just haven't been proofread and checked for printing errors.
The reason I said it was better than I'd thought it would be is that the jacket describes this way: "[a:Yukio Mishima|35258|Yukio Mishima|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1502325778p2/35258.jpg] also wrote a number of 'popular' novels, few of which have been translated into English." In other words, he wrote this to keep the coffers full. But while it might not have the depth of his more serious work, I found it engaging.
The back cover of my edition describes the plot well:
After botching a …
I read an uncorrected proof version of this so the cover was very different from the one you see here. If you're looking for kinky sex, look elsewhere, there's none in this book.
It's better than I'd expected though the translation read like an early draft. I doubt it changed much in its final form; advance copies have usually been copyedited, they just haven't been proofread and checked for printing errors.
The reason I said it was better than I'd thought it would be is that the jacket describes this way: "[a:Yukio Mishima|35258|Yukio Mishima|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1502325778p2/35258.jpg] also wrote a number of 'popular' novels, few of which have been translated into English." In other words, he wrote this to keep the coffers full. But while it might not have the depth of his more serious work, I found it engaging.
The back cover of my edition describes the plot well:
After botching a suicide attempt, salaryman Hanio Yamada decides to put his life up for sale in the classifieds section of a Tokyo newspaper. Soon interested parties come calling with increasingly bizarre requests, and what follows is a madcap comedy of errors involving a jealous husband, a drug-addled heiress, poisoned carrots—even a vampire. For someone who just wants to die, Hanio can't seem to catch a break, as he finds himself enmeshed in a continent-wide conspiracy that puts him in the crosshairs of both his own government and a powerful organized-crime cartel. By turns wildly inventive, darkly comedic, and deeply surreal, here Mishima stunningly uses satire to explore the same dark themes that preoccupied him during his lifetime.
I don't think I'd call it a "madcap comedy" of any kind, and given that it takes place entirely in Japan I also wouldn't call the conspiracy "continent-wide." Japan is an island nation. Duh.
[b:Life for Sale|43685241|Life for Sale|Yukio Mishima|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554171978l/43685241.SY75.jpg|1950920] was published in 1968, and it takes place around then.
So he was finally to die tonight. Hanio was looking forward to it. What particularly pleased him was that it was not going to happen by his own hand. Suicide was actually harder than people think—too dramatic for his taste. And if you were going to get yourself killed, it would have to be for some reason. No one had ever detested him or resented him that much, and anyway, the thought that he might be of sufficient interest to others that he might be of sufficient interest to others that they would want him dead horrified him. Selling your life was such a splendid way out: it took away all need for responsibility.
