Life for Sale, Yukio Mishima
Life for Sale, Yukio Mishima
1 Rating(s)
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Life for Sale

Author: Yukio Mishima

Narrator: Kotaro Watanabe

Unabridged: 7 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/21/2020


Synopsis

“A propulsive, madcap story” (The New York Times) about a salaryman who decides to put his life up for sale in the classifieds section of a Tokyo newspaper after a botched suicide attempt. • "An outstanding writer not only of Japan, but of the world." —The Atlantic

After salaryman Hanio Yamada puts his life up for sale, interested parties quickly come calling with increasingly bizarre requests. 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 cross hairs of both his own government and a powerful organized-crime syndicate. By turns wildly inventive, darkly comedic, and deeply surreal, in Life for Sale Yukio Mishima stunningly uses satire to explore the same dark themes that preoccupied him throughout his lifetime.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Adam

Propulsive romp from Mishima, a major departure from anything I've seen by him. This is an intentionally campy, pulpy novel about a man who decides to sell his own life. A sequence of linked vignettes unspools - there are vampires, spies, rants about carrots, and a fairly ludicrous number of sex sce......more

Goodreads review by Tim

Years ago I read a little book called Pulp by Charles Bukowski in which he tried to write an absurdist comedic noir. There were aspects of it that I really enjoyed, but a lot that I felt was flawed. Now it's Mishima's turn to do the exact same thing. The plot: Hanio Yamada wants to die. After a botch......more

Goodreads review by Matteo

Videorecensione: [URL not allowed]-DXc Mishima ha avuto una vita breve ma ha scritto tantissimo. Ed è una gioia quando un suo libro inedito viene riesumato e pubblicato a sorpresa. Soprattutto perché la garanzia di qualità è sempre comprovata da un livello altissimo. Ogni sua opera è diversa da......more


Quotes

“A propulsive, madcap story. . . . It’s the book’s looseness and weirdness that provide its appeal.” —The New York Times
 
“[A] big deal . . . the first English translation of a piece of engaging pulp fiction . . . by one of [Japan’s] literary greats. . . . This surreal tale offers a trenchant critique of a city that has misplaced its soul.” —The Guardian
 
"Funny and horrific and curious and thoroughly entertaining. . . . [Life for Sale] should win Mishima a new generation of fans." —The Independent
 
“A sexy, camp delight. Beneath the hard-boiled dialogue and the gangster high jinks is a familiar indictment of consumerist Japan and a romantic yearning for the past. . . . Life for Saleis replete with Tarantino-like scenes of smuggling and murder, as well as philosophical musings on Japanese attitudes to the sword, the warrior and honour.” —Evening Standard
 
“This dark, funny social satire feels like something only Mishima could’ve written. . . . A slapstick comedy with a complex moral underpinning, and an intriguing departure from his introspective work. . . . Pungent insights into the challenges of postwar Japanese life are threaded brilliantly throughout.” —Publishers Weekly
 
“Exhilarating, surreal.” —The Spectator
 
"Wildly funny." —The Millions
 
“A terrific example of Mishima’s fecund imagination at its most free-wheeling and unfettered best, teeming with complex ideas about the paradoxical nature of existence, delivered with trademark panache and a winking smile. . . . Wildly comedic and filled with picaresque flights of fancy. . . . There’s more than a touch of James Bond about Life for Sale.” —The Japan Times