The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea Novel by Yukio Mishima review

***SPOILER ALERT***

This book was recommended to me by a friend, with similar interests. Even though we have similar interests I think this book shows our differences. While this is one of her favourite books, this book was an average read for me. However, the more I think about about it after reading, I can see how it is such a classic.

The story revolves around a 13 year old boy, Noboru, with a single mother; set after WWII. Him and his friends follow this belief of machoism, and super masculinity. This is obviously shown in his thoughts, especially when his mother starts an affair with a sailor, who travels a lot. At first, Noboru admires this sailor, seeing him as the peak of masculinity; but over time, seeing the sailors' relationship grow with his mother, Noboru starts to get embarrassed and hateful towards the sailor.

Reading this book was quite hard for me, mostly because the main genre of this book does not align with the genres I like but that obviously does not mean I will not read it. I would say that the plot starts off really good and ends really good yet the middle of the plot does drag I feel. Maybe because I took 4 months trying to finish it off but that is exactly what I mean. It got to a point in the book where I was forcing myself to read it and power through it. While the plot was average, the complexity of the characters were great, especially of the main character. I love when authors make the main character a morally bad character. In this case, Yukio Mishima, made Noboru a twisted individual but the only reason why he is like that is because of his upbringing and how it is compared to his best mates. His friends personalities rub off on him causing him to think the same thoughts as them. Also with him only having a single mother growing up, he had no male parental figure to look up to, to copy mannerisms from and get certain teachings from, therefore giving him the weird habit of spying on his mum while he's angry at her. This a completely bizarre, perverted habit he has obtained however he does not gain any sexual satisfaction but rather complete control of power over his mum (I think so anyways from what Noboru has explained from his feelings).

Overall, the book was 3/5 for me, only because the plot does drag and lack in certain areas but I must praise the book for the complexity of it's characters and certainly for the way it is written. Unfortunately though, I did read the book in English, not its original language, I am sure that the book is even better in Japanese as most books when translated loses its beauty.

I would love to know anyone else's thoughts on this book and if they have read anything similar to this book.