Here to slake the unquenchable thirst of Dazais legions of loyal fans are eleven works of short fiction and vignettes, most of which have never before appeared in English.
Beginning with Memories (which tells a tale of teenage love, based on the autobiographical events that inspired Dazais famed No Longer Human), and ending with Good-Bye (the chapters of a comic romance that the author left unfinished when he took his own life), the short works here show the range and breadth of an author best known for his meditations on squalor and despair. But there is laughter here too, as in Tengu, a tongue-in-cheek critique of august hucksters of haiku. And there is also suspense on display: A Bluff Illusion presents a literary murder story in which a harmless prank escalates into a deadly pose. A Warning on Worldly Pleasures retells Saikakus famous story about the temptation of a holy ascetic, and A: Autumn unfolds a quiver of epigrams (seemingly) drawn at random from the authors notes. All are masterfully translated by Ralph McCarthy.
Spanning the breadth of Dazais delightfully multifaceted, if tragically foreshortened, career, Good-Bye is a must-have for any Dazai fan.
