No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai Book Review

 No Longer Human 

By Osamu Dazai 

Published Year : 1948

Page Count : 177 pages 

Medium Used : Paperback 

Genre : Speculative Fiction, Good Prose, Lyrical prose, 2024-read

Rating : 5/5 🌟 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

For such a short book, the story carries immense weight on the mind of an impressionable reader like me. This book speaks to readers of all ages, genders and is as pertinent to the current times as it was when it was first published! 

A lot of people go through what the narrator had fought to escape all his life - a sense of purposelessness and an abyss of inner void where he can't form any sort of meaningful connections with people around him. It gets to the point that he starts referring to everyone else as human beings as if he isn't one too! And for him, these comparisons and observations which marginalized him started very early on in his life. He is too bashful and shy with everyone that he deeply fears them and prevaricates. He compensates this lack of real connection through mockery, comedy and transforming himself into something he is not - a feelingless, easy going, angelic clown. Everyone likes him and he fears them all. He is afraid of getting hurt and can't say 'no'. 

He gets dragged, through some not so peculiar circumstances, into casual affairs with prostitutes, drinking and smoking. He harbors hopes for becoming a successful painter but when those are dashed, finds solace in drinking. To stop drinking, he marries a girl whom he considers chaste and a call of liberation. For a while, his drinking problem gets better but eventually he succumbs to it again. This time,his escape from drinking is not as harmless as a marriage - but tryst with drugs. Medicine pills he starts popping like candy. Where does this end? Does he ever get out this interminable loop of blatant disregard for life and start valuing it more ? Is life there to be sacrificed at the altar of wastage and ruin? A very wonderful and pertinent read today as it was in its day. 

😇😇😇😇

About the Author

Osamu Dazai 

The author is Japanese born and this is his pen name. He was little known outside of Japan for a  time before some of his books got translated and a couple of them - including this one - are labeled modern day classics. He died at an early age of 38 through suicide - he, along with a friend, drowned themselves. What a waste of  human talent!