A Shameful Life

Osamu Dazai is one of the most famous—& infamous—writers of 20th-century Japan. A Shameful Life (Ningen shikkaku) is his final published work & has become a bestselling classic for its depiction of the tortured struggle of a young man to survive in a world that he cannot comprehend. Paralleling the life & death of Dazai himself, the delicate weaving of fact and fiction remorselessly documents via journals the life of Yozo, a university student who spends his time in increasing isolation & debauchery. His doomed love affairs, suicide attempts, & constant fear of revealing his true self haunt the pages of the book & reveal a slow descent into madness. This dark tale nevertheless conveys something authentic about the human heart & its inability to find its true bearing.

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Osamu DAZAI (native name: 太宰治, real name Shūji Tsushima) was a Japanese author who is considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th-century Japan. A number of his most popular works, such as Shayō (The Setting Sun) & Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human), are considered modern-day classics in Japan.