Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima Paperback Book 9780241301197

There is in this world a kind of desire like stinging painA Japanese teenager is overcome with longing for his male classmate He imagines his body punctured with arrows like the body of St Sebastian in the painting that obsesses him Over and over again each night in his private fantasies the objects of his lust are tortured killed and maimed But in the rigid world of imperial wartime Japan there is no place for such transgressive desires He must wear a false mask and hide his true nature whatever the cost A terrific and astringent work of beauty The Times Literary SupplementMishima is lucid in the midst of emotional confusion funny in the midst of despair Christopher IsherwoodNever has a quotconfessionquot been freer from selfpity Sunday Times