The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea

I picked up this book last summer and abandoned it about 60 pages in. I really did not think I was going to like this book as much as I did. The plot is simple with a backdrop of post-World War II Japan where a boy, Noboru and his widowed mother, Fusako live a simple life. Fusako meets Ryuji, a sailor and unknowing of her son’s true thoughts, Noboru begins to idolize Ryuji. However, adoration is short-lived as Ryuji becomes the type of person Noboru and his friends dislike the most: a father. This short story is packed full of references to desire, a glory-filled death, the concept of idealism versus reality and how a young group of impressionable thirteen-year-old boys contrive a plan to eliminate the sins of this world. The foreshadowing, the utility of the sea as a vast unknown, coming-of-age, the relationship between father and son, are written masterfully. Though I only read the translation, the writing is beautiful and the details in this story are one to pay attention to. Mishima uses the sea as a mark of human desire; the thought process that we all live and breathe the skeleton of dreams we set out for ourselves. He represents real life struggle between your ideal vs. reality through a father-son relationship. This duel that results in reality crumbling and reinventing itself as idealism creeps in and makes home in the mind. What does it mean to live in reality? Is it inherently opposing of idealistic dreams? The role of women in society, how young boys are capable of deeds that are worthy of pause, intimacy and sexuality in culture are all themes explored in this short 181 page book. I cannot recommend this enough. 4.5/5