Yukio Mishima is no ordinary mortal.
It is necessary to realize this detail in order to accept the sublime and absolute aesthetics contained in his writings. An artistic, aesthetic, human quest, carried out with absolute conviction by a unique writer, through a refined and incisive language that explores feelings and emotions like no other.
The ten stories in this book share two common threads: an underlying restlessness, manifest and palpable in every action or gesture of the protagonists, and the presence of death, understood not as a specter to be exorcised but as an intrinsic component of life.
Death by Midsummer certainly cannot be defined as a horror book in the strict sense of the term, although we do find strongly disturbing elements among these pages: disturbing presences (think of the figure in 'The Seven Bridges' or the short story 'Three Million Yen'), deaths by drowning (in the story that gives the collection its title), chilling revelations ('The Fear of Thermos') and suicides that could unfairly be called splatter (in 'Patriotism').
But Mishima's stories rise to such lofty heights that they cannot be classified except as aesthetic writings, for there is such a vast scope of symbols and meanings in them that a divine work cannot be limited by simple, reductive classifications.
Among Midsummer Death's ten masterpieces, 'Patriotism' clearly stands out, a tale that recounts the ritual of Seppuku - ritual suicide - with a wealth of detail, masterfully exploring the moods of the two main characters. And such a dramatic event through Mishima's writing manages to become aesthetic. Even in the crudest scenes (the disembowelment, for which I have previously pointed out that the term 'splatter' could mistakenly be used) described in great detail, it is the human feeling in the foreground, the spiritual and not the material aspect. The choice of vocabulary succeeds in lending grace to even the most grim images.
'Patriotism' is such an intense and masterfully crafted tale that it leaves one breathless, and anyone who loves Art and literature cannot miss reading it.
The significance of this tale is even deeper in that it becomes a symbol and funereal anticipation of the fate of Mishima, who in 1970 committed suicide precisely through the ritual of Seppuku.
However, do not mislead by the gesture, which should not be viewed with Western eyes, as it is considered in Japan and by Mishima himself (who conformed his life to the precepts of the ancient Samurai) to be an extremely noble gesture, not of defeat but of liberation and freedom, of complete self-control on the part of man.
Remember that Yukio Mishima is no ordinary mortal.
Published by Guanda - Coll. The Pocket Phoenixes - pp. 239 - Price 7.80 Euro
Reviewed by Ian
