Unlikeable but captivating? ( )

Oh boy. This book makes different types of people uncomfortable for a variety of reasons, and most of them are in denial of certain realities (uh, sometimes their own). ( )

A taste of a different and tragic life. ( )

Hmmm... I read because Dazai comes up so often as classic Japanese author. My first book by him. I was ... underwhelmed... page after page of self indulgent braggadocio ... "smarter than anyone without studying" "everybody loved me no matter what" "i immediately saw through every one" "i am the only authentic person alive" ... ok- so that is an impressionistic summary of the content and yes, it is rings of salinger and lots of other young coming of age self obsessed boys, but this is rather over the top in its shameless single minded shallowness. We are supposed to be .. impressed? pity? i'm not sure exactly. So... why 4 stars after all that? (pretty high) well, it does grow on one - the vapid, immature child clinging to those passing by. Ultimately we have some charming, dark scenes ... i'm thinking of his 2nd wife and that loser friend of his. ( )

To be sincere I don't know how to rate this book.

Don't get me wrong this book is anything but boring. The style is fluent and the novel can be read in a few days.

The reason that I don't know how to rate this book is because it unleashed a storm of feeling and emotions that I don't quite know how to manage.

I will probably re-read it in a few years, once I make sense of my inner feelings, so I can give a rating.