Review | Osamu Dazai’s The Setting Sun
Osamu Dazai is one of the great modern japanese writers of the 20th century. His works reverb with old and new generations even seventy years after his death. Under the marvelous translation by Donald Keene published by New Directions, Dazai’s work gained a new public in the West through the releases of No Longer Human and the topic of this article, The Setting Sun — a sour confession of Dazai’s shame towards his origins in the japanese aristocracy and it’s fall after the end of the World War II and the impact it had in japanese society and individuals in the new modern age.
The Setting Sun, set a few years after the war, talks about the moral crisis in an transitioning feudal Japan into a modern industrial society. The story follows Kazuko, a young aristocrat woman living with her widowed mother, who ultimately rejects her social class and identity in a modern sacrifice in order to find happiness.
The title highlights the novel and Dazai’s intimate ominous writing style that he would master in his later work, No Longer Human. Written in first person, the story benefits greatly from the perspective to change between characters through various devices — like Kazuko’s diary entries, letters and a will — to present incredibly intimate feelings and thoughts that develop the narrative themes: existentialism, the growing modernization of the individual and the adoption of western values into japanese society.
Reading The Setting Sun was a grounding experience to see a more realistic and dramatic representation of japanese society as Dazai deviates from the stereotypical cultural aspects associated with Japan that we have here in the west, and presents an humane discussion on social classes and the decadence of the modern human life. This intimacy in his writing makes the reader feel under the character’s skin in an relatable and immersive industrial modern drama — set, ironically, in interior Japan — that sometimes made me wonder if he was writing about real people.
The Western influence, especially his contemporary french symbolism, is clear in each chapter. A true japanese novel, The Setting Sun weirdly crosses that fearful line that scares western readers from eastern literature in a piece that feels universal and relevant even today.
Donald Keene’s translation exceeds expectations; it’s visible in each word choice the passion and understanding not only of japanese literature but of Dazai’s work. It’s hard to imagine that this work could have been done by better hands.
Verdict
An universal classic of literature, The Setting Sun is a must-read specially for those who want to dive deep into japanese culture and literature.
