I Read A Book - Persona: A Biography of Yukio Mishima

I have been reading - for some time now - an advance copy of Persona: A Biography of Yukio Mishima written by Naoki Inose, and translated by Hioaki Sato. I actually finished the book a few days ago. 

My slowness in reading it was not due to the writer or the book, but more to do with the fact that I spend a lot of my time writing until the wee hours. As such, I would read the book at lunch whilst shoveling sushi down my throat.

Persona is kind of stuff at the beginning, I must admit, but after I got used to the names and the style (after about 20 pages), I found it flowing, and an enjoyable book.

And that is saying something - as I am not usually one for biographies. I don't mind watching them on TV, because I enjoy the visual stimulation - but reading about someone - ugh. I prefer history, non-modern detective novels, comedy, futuristic, fantasy and sci-fi... 

And yet... there was something about this biography book which made me continue reading. And, when I was done... I actually enjoyed it. I would even recommend it.   

Here's is the press release of the book sent to me by Stone Bridge Press. 

The 858 hardcover has been out for sale since November of 2012 for $39.95 US or $43.99 Cdn. I'll take the U.S. price, please. It is distributed by Consortium.

More than 40 years after his shocking death in 1970, Yukio Mishima remains one of Japan's most widely read and controversial authors. A three-time nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Mishima was a brilliant writer and intellectual whose relentless obsession with beauty, purity, and patriotism ended in spectacular ritual suicide.

Persona is the first full biography of Mishima to appear in English in nearly four decades. It traces his trajectory from a sickly boy to a hard-bodied student of the martial arts. In detail, it examines his family life, the war years, and his emergence, then fame, as a writer and advocate for traditional values.

Using interviews, social and psychological analysis, and close readings of his novels and essays, author Naoki Inose and translator/adapter Hiroaki Sato have produced a monumental work that covers much new ground and offers easy access to primary source material never before presented to an English-language audience.
 Naoki Inose is governor of Tokyo. He has written biographies of writers Kan Kikuchi and Osamu Dazai. 

Hiroaki Sato is a prize-winning translator of Japanese poetry. He is translator of Mishima's novel, Silk and Insight, and his dramas, My Friend Hitler and Other Plays.
 
I know I plugged this book back in September of last year, but at least this time I have read it.  

Thanks for the chance to read a PDF of it Stone Bridge Press.

Cheers,
Andrew Joseph