Leeway

A strong novel.

The 4th and last novel in Mishima's Sea Of Fertility tetralogy. This novel is something of a throwback to his earlier novels in style. The quartet of novels are challenging to read.

Still have to read Underworld. Don't know why I haven't. The others you cited are indeed superlative.

The third novel in Mishima's Sea of Fertility tetralogy. No doubt an ambitious effort on Mishima's part, but the novel as a whole just fell flat for me.

I used to enjoy watching Hitchens on America TV; his witty repartee (even when he was wrong) was refreshing in an often anodyne cultural landscape. His relatively early passing was unfortunate. The memoir is interesting, occasionally amusing, and occasionally plodding. I wonder if he's remembered even now?

PM sent. Thanks.

The 2nd novel in Mishima's "Sea of Fertility" tetralogy. Perhaps not quite up to the mark of his Spring Snow, but clearly a major effort from Mishima. It's fascinating, if disturbing, to watch Mishima engage with the subject of ritual suicide (seppuku), knowing that's how he ended his own life.

Another masterpiece from Mishima.

Exquisitely calibrated revelations of an unreliable narrator. One can follow this narrative approach as it develops in Ishiguro's earlier novels, A Pale View of Hills and An Artist of the Floating World," which bear strong similarities to TROTD. The tone of these novels is serious, but it strikes me that there is a fair amount of covert, mordant humor in these stories, although it can be hard to tell given the ambivalence of the narration.

Yukio Mishima - THE SOUND OF WAVES A lovely, nearly fabulist tale of young love, but with the shadow outlines of some of Mishima's later preoccupations.

Love the BAG and HAE recordings. An important figure in the music. RIP.

Memoirs of a publishing giant (Simon & Schuster, Knopf, The New Yorker), with enough literary gossip to keep things interesting. Reading this reminded me of how similar Hollywood and publishing can be. Watching a book make it to publication is like watching how sausages are made--not always pretty even if the end result is tasty.

I have still to read Remains of the Day, but I might take a break before I do so.

Another ambivalent, ambiguous, elusive fiction from Ishiguro.