My favourite Book of the Season: "No Longer Human" by Osamu Dazai [ Review ]

"No Longer Human" is a novel written by the Japanese author Osamu Dazai in 1948. A novel that has profoundly resonated with the chords of my soul, especially in this challenging period of my life. I am delighted to have discovered this author, so resonant with my mood and thoughts. I highly appreciate its melancholic, philosophical, sometimes tragic, yet deep and genuine nuances.

In "No Longer Human," Osamu Dazai delves into the human condition, asking a fundamental question: what’s a human being? This very question haunts the protagonist, Oba Yozo, presumably the alter ego of the author.

In the prologue, three pictures depicting the same individual at three life stages—a neonate, a young adult, and a man—are introduced to the reader. In none of these instances is this being human. Even he does not define himself as such. Yozo is something else, something non-human; he identifies as a "clown," a mask.

Yozo sacrifices his authenticity to "pass for a human," to appear as such, fully aware that he isn't. Oppressed by societal norms, he adopts the strategy of masking, leading to disastrous consequences. Thus, the novel traces Yozo's life from childhood to adulthood, engaging the reader in his thoughts and existential turmoil or unsettling them with his cynical and nihilistic view of existence.

In contemporary society, we might describe him using the term "People Pleaser"—someone who prioritizes others' needs above their own, with a condescending nature, incapable of saying "no," he jeopardizes himself while pretending that he's solving his problems until he gets unmasked.

The clown is the mask Yozo chooses to wear, conscious of the lies he tells. He nullifies himself to please others. For him, this performance is a personal amusement, despite the disgust he feels for himself and the human race, knowing it's inevitable. And Yozo is not the only clown in this circus called human existence, as most of the characters presented, with few exceptions, play the same role.

As the story unfolds, Yozo will no longer be able to distinguish what's true from what's false. What is human from what isn't. The exploration of the human condition leads the protagonist to a slow and convoluted self-destruction.