After the banquet
14.99 €
In stock
After the banquet
14.99 €
The middle-aged, elegant, independent, and spontaneous Kazu, the owner of a restaurant frequented by conservative politicians, falls in love with the aging former diplomat Noguchi, a sophisticated advocate of reform, and becomes his wife. What could go wrong? When a former diplomat returns to politics, heeding the calls of an unpopular party, almost anything can happen. Unscrupulousness versus moral purity, loyalty to one's husband versus fidelity to principles—when the political becomes personal, family becomes a battlefield, love risks becoming a casualty, and the threat of losing one's independence can prove more frightening than impending loneliness. Yukio Mishima (1925–1970) was a star of 20th-century literature, the most widely read Japanese author in the world, a brilliant talent renowned for his works, which spanned a wide range and variety of genres (novels, plays, short stories, essays), as well as his astonishing biography (his obsession with bodybuilding, his extreme right-wing political views, and his hara-kiri after a failed coup attempt). In "After the Banquet" (1960), Mishima sought to show how love develops, transforms, distorts, and is undermined by politics, and its publication caused a major scandal in Japanese political and social circles. Former Foreign Minister Hachiro Arita, recognizing himself in Noguchi, sued Mishima for violation of his right to privacy. Mishima lost the case—the first case in Japan over a writer's freedom of speech—which, according to some critics, effectively killed the genre of topical Japanese satire.
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author
- All books in the series A Big Novel (Slim Format)