Details:
- author: Osamu Dazai
- full title: No Longer Human
- narrator: David Shih
- genre: literary fiction
- topics: #identity, #depression, #anxiety, #suicide
- publisher: Tantor Audio
- publish date: 20 Dec 2016
- timing: 4:13:00
My Rating of the Audiobook:
- content: 💙💙💙💙
- narration: 💙💙💙💙💙
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| Goodreads |
Excerpt from the Book:
Mine has been a life of much shame.
I can’t even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being. I was born in a village in the Northeast, and it wasn’t until I was quite big that I saw my first train. I climbed up and down the station bridge, quite unaware that its function was to permit people to cross from one track to another. I was convinced that the bridge had been provided to lend an exotic touch and to make the station premises a place of pleasant diversity, like some foreign playground. I remained under this delusion for quite a long time, and it was for me a very refined amusement indeed to climb up and down the bridge. I thought that it was one of the most elegant services provided by the railways. When later I discovered that the bridge was nothing more than a utilitarian device, I lost all interest in it.
My Thoughts:
No Longer Human is a haunting, introspective novel by Osamu Dazai that looks into the mind of a young man struggling with his own identity and place in the world. The narrator is given three notebooks of a person named Ōba Yōzō. The story in the notebooks starts with early childhood and continues into adulthood of Yōzō. He doesn’t show his feelings and true self to others. He is a joker in front of everyone.
No Longer Human explores the darker corners of the human psyche. It is a very dark novel that deals with the heavy themes of depression, anxiety, and suicide. The title No Longer Human may give us a hint of the theme of this short novel, but the literal translation (Disqualified From Being Human) is even more horrifying.
Osamu Dazai is not very well-known in the Western world. But he is very popular in Japan, and some of his works are considered classics. No longer human is his latest work. It is his semi-autobiographical novel because it contains pieces from the author’s life, but the characters are fictional.
This novel could resonate with those who have ever felt like they don’t belong in the world around them. But I wouldn’t recommend this novel to everyone. To some, these themes might be too heavy or triggering.
About the Author:
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) and Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human), are considered modern-day classics in Japan.
With a semi-autobiographical style and transparency into his personal life, Dazai’s stories have intrigued the minds of many readers. His books also bring about awareness to a number of important topics such as human nature, mental illness, social relationships, and postwar Japan.
About the Narrator:
An AudioFile Earphones Award winner for 47 Ronin by John Allyn, David Shih narrated the History Channel documentary China's First Emperor and the Discovery Networks series Royal Inquest. He is the voice of Eddie Toh in the hit video game Grand Theft Auto V. In addition to his role as Isiah on the Hulu original series The Path, he has appeared in the TV shows The Blacklist, Mozart in the Jungle, Unforgettable, Golden Boy, Blue Bloods, Are We There Yet?, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, All My Children, and As the World Turns, as well as the feature films The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Respect the Jux, Old 37, Fan Girl, and Saving Face. His theater credits include the National Asian American Theater Company's acclaimed production of Awake and Sing! at the Public Theater, The World of Extreme Happiness (Manhattan Theatre Club), Bike America (Ma-Yi Theater Company), and Crane Story (The Playwrights Realm). Dave also works with Only Make Believe performing interactive theater for children in hospitals and care facilities.
