No Longer Human by Dazai Osamu (Japanese “I-Novel” from 1948)

Sounds a dark book of social alienation.

Not sure No Longer Human is a book I m going to be picking up. I always enjoy your discussion of which books the book you are reviewing reminds you of and what books may have influenced the writer.

Love it, Jack! Great discussion piece here! Can’t wait to get to this later this year. Trigger Warnings: Check All.
I’m really enjoying the I-Novel style where we get so much truth and almost a two-for-one non-fiction and fiction tale blended together.
Chilling and horrifying indeed but also the need to destroy others as he attempted so many times to have lovers honor suicide with him. Such a different look on the point of suicidal in Japanese culture too.
I had never had Quicksand recommended before. Thanks for bringing that up! Spinning Gears is wonderful! I know we voxered after talking but for others, his daughter Yuko Tsushima has similar styles that is worth checking out if you like deep confessional style.
I’ll be checking out Swann’s way some day.
Setting Sun was great. It’s been a LONG time. I want to reread that too after I do No Longer Human

The Japanese have a saying "living as one already dead" ...it means that one lives on the plane of expertness...see Ruth Bennett's the chrysanthemum and the sword...the Japanese think way different from us ...a real eye opener

I've never heard the term 'i-novel' -- glad to find it's not an Apple product...🙃

About halfway through No Longer Human as of leaving this comment. I’ve been aware of it for a while but it took watching a very positive review from Better Than Food along with this video to decide to order it. Up till this point I think I've been writing it off as something that sounds (from summaries, reviews) too Notes From The Underground-esque to be worth it: relatable maybe (for better or for worse, which is a whole topic) but too indebted to the original thing to avoid falling short in comparison (eg The Joker vis-à-vis Taxi Driver - arguably, Thomas Bernhard vis-à-vis Beckett - arguably). So far though, I’m finding it interesting despite the broadly familiar ground it covers. Three cheers for BookTube.

I really liked the last line: "He was an angel." It really resonated with the first line where he talks about not living the life of a human. Perhaps, Dazai will forever be my favourite author of all time.

would you recommend some novels about drug abuse or mental health conditions ?