A disturbing read: Runaway Horses, by Yukio Mishima

Here's my review on Goodreads:

Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima

Well, I got through it. This book is beautifully-written and repelling at the same time. I did at times feel like I was reading the story through the eyes of a terrorist, which held its own brief fascination.




The bio of the author is actually even more interesting than the book, which I found unsatisfying at the end. Mishima seems to have been a man born in the wrong era - he was born into a Samurai family and was a descendant of a Shogun. Incredibly prolific, he wrote 30 novels, 18 plays, 20 volumes of verse and 20 volumes of essays. He was an avid swordsman and body builder and became extremely proficient in Kendo. Possibly bi-sexual, he posed in the nude and was enamoured by the strong male physique. Yet he was married with 2 children. He was charismatic, self-aware and apparently had an uncommon genius for conversation. He lamented the Westernization of Japanese culture, and his last works were the The Sea of Fertility 4-volume epic. Runaway Horses is the 2nd volume in that series.



And, like the protagonist in Runaway Horses, at the age of 45, this author committed ritual suicide after staging an unsuccessful (and publicly mocked) coupe on the Eastern Army of the Japanese Self-Defense Force.



Disappointing. Especially disappointing because it's so cliche and such a waste. Did he descend into madness? In Runaway Horses, he seems to speak through the character of Honda (a judge), who is the sole voice of reason in the novel. Yet he followed the way of Isao, the protagonist, in a grand gesture of life imitating his own art.
 
I'm a bit confused by the whole experience.  Thus, the 2 stars.