Patriotism [Paperback]

Yukio Mishima (Author), Geoffrey W. Sargent (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1995

One of the most powerful short stories ever written: Yukio Mishima’s masterpiece about the erotics of patriotism and honor, love and suicide.

By now, Yukio Mishima’s (1925-1970) dramatic demise through an act of seppuku after an inflammatory public speech has become the stuff of literary legend. With Patriotism, Mishima was able to give his heartwrenching patriotic idealism an immortal vessel.  A lieutenant in the Japanese army comes home to his wife and informs her that his closest friends have become mutineers. He and his beautiful loyal wife decide to end their lives together. In unwavering detail Mishima describes Shinji and Reiko making love for the last time and the couple’s seppuku that follows.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This brief historical story of a young army officer and his wife is considered seminal Mishima. LJ's reviewer wrote that Mishima's stories have "timeless and universal appeal" (LJ 4/1/66).
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A direct yet lyrical style devoted entirely to bringing out the elevated emotions of its two characters. (Trevor Berrett - The Mookse and the Gripes )

The violence we are facing with such difficulty in our daily lives, he gives us simply in all its subcutaneous horror and myth. (Hortense Calisher - The New York Times Book Review ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation (November 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811213129
• ISBN-13: 978-0811213127
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #365,359 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Will spark debate, September 14, 2004

By 

Charles E. Stevens - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Patriotism (Paperback)

"Patriotism" is Mishima stripped to the core: a simple tale of the sacrifice of a young couple, willingly and eagerly giving their lives for the emperor. Written by most anyone but Mishima this would be portrayed as a story of regret and tragedy, but in the hands of Mishima, the couple is described in tones extolling their beauty and virtue; death explained in words that evoke images of heat and passion. Mishima does not sugarcoat the experience; he lays it bare for the reader. My personal feelings regarding the content of this short story are at odds with those of Mishima, but I cannot deny the power and skill of "Patriotism". This is the type of book that should be read and discussed, a story that loses no power despite the time that has elapsed since it was written nearly forty years ago.

An interesting note regarding the title: although the original title (Yukoku) is usually translated as "patriotism" in English, the word carries different overtones than the English word "patriotism" or the more common Japanese word "aikoku" or "aikokushin". Yukoku translates more accurately as worry or anxiety over the present state or future of one's country. It is also a homophone for another word that means "evening". When reading this tale, remember these details as well as the fact that Mishima wrote this tale not during the heat and fury of wartime Japan, but twenty years after World War II ended, and this story will take on new nuances.

Patriotism is an intense study in nationalism, wartime-Japan style, as well as a window onto the soul of the enigmatic Mishima.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A short masterpiece where ugliness becomes beautiful., November 11, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (UCONN School of Medicine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Patriotism (Paperback)

"Patriotism," a short story by one of the 20th century's most talented and notorious authors, cannot be adequately described within the constraints of language. It has a raw power that, like all of Mishima's works, is profoundly delicate in construction and exquisite in tempo.

The plot of "Patriotism" is simple enough -- it is, in fact, unimportant. An officer in the Japanese military is given orders to disrupt a renegade political group that he happens to hold allegiance to. What else does one do in such a quandry (particularly a character of Mishima) than commit seppuku? The bulk of "Patriotism" is the last night that this officer and his wife spend together before they both commit ritual suicide. What sets "Patriotism" apart from virtually all other literature is its portrayal of a couple's last night and their gruesome, graphic, horrific deaths in glorious and ecstatic terms.

Many writers are capable of vividly depicting a scene of death and horror, and this story is more disgusting and graphic than anything I've read in Stephen King. But the literal description of what happens has an unpredictable and unbelievable impact in this story, where one man's act of disemboweling himself is described in the most ecstatic terms. It was that juxtaposition of glory and death that made me nearly double over when I'd finished. "Patriotism" is not for the weak heart nor the weak stomach, but in 50 pages or so it creates an effect you are not likely to see executed so well elsewhere.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars riddled with typos!, February 22, 2010

By 

J. R. Alford (Brooklyn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Patriotism (Second Edition) (New Directions Pearls) (Paperback)

The new 2010 "Pearls" edition of Patriotism is so full of typos I wanted to cut my own stomach out. There's no excuse for these mistakes. It took me no more than 40 minutes to read the entire story and it's a shame New Directions couldn't take the time to do so before they sent this thing to press. For example: a sentence that is supposed to read "her socks were no longer sticky with blood" says "her sucks were no longer sticky with blood." Completely appalling stuff--I'll be skipping all the "Pearls" from here on out.