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Beautiful Star
'Interplanetary, quite extraordinary . . . awash with dark humour and scenes of intense beauty' Financial Times
'One of the greatest avant-garde Japanese writers of the twentieth century' New Yorker
Beautiful Star is a 1962 tale of family, love, nuclear war and UFOs, and was considered by Mishima to be one of his very best books.
Translated into English for the first time, this atmospheric black comedy tells the story of the Osugi family, who come to the sudden realization that each of them hails from a different planet: Father from Mars, mother from Jupiter, son from Mercury and daughter from Venus. This extra-terrestrial knowledge brings them closer together, and convinces them that they have a mission: to find others of their kind, and save humanity from the imminent threat of the atomic bomb...
'One of the greatest avant-garde Japanese writers of the twentieth century' New Yorker
Beautiful Star is a 1962 tale of family, love, nuclear war and UFOs, and was considered by Mishima to be one of his very best books.
Translated into English for the first time, this atmospheric black comedy tells the story of the Osugi family, who come to the sudden realization that each of them hails from a different planet: Father from Mars, mother from Jupiter, son from Mercury and daughter from Venus. This extra-terrestrial knowledge brings them closer together, and convinces them that they have a mission: to find others of their kind, and save humanity from the imminent threat of the atomic bomb...
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
366 people are currently reading
5666 people want to read
About the author
Yukio Mishima
465 books9,246 followersYukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫) was born in Tokyo in 1925. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University’s School of Jurisprudence in 1947. His first published book, The Forest in Full Bloom, appeared in 1944 and he established himself as a major author with Confessions of a Mask (1949). From then until his death he continued to publish novels, short stories, and plays each year. His crowning achievement, the Sea of Fertility tetralogy—which contains the novels Spring Snow (1969), Runaway Horses (1969), The Temple of Dawn (1970), and The Decay of the Angel (1971)—is considered one of the definitive works of twentieth-century Japanese fiction. In 1970, at the age of forty-five and the day after completing the last novel in the Fertility series, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide)—a spectacular death that attracted worldwide attention.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 358 reviews
May 12, 2023
Yukio Mishima’s Beautiful Star was first serialised in the early 1960s in the midst of a growing global crisis, it was the height of the Cold War and relations between the Soviet Union and America were disastrously fraught. Nuclear war looked almost unavoidable. A situation that made Japan a particularly vulnerable, potential target, since complicated post-WW2 negotiations had left them with a slew of American bases and a treaty that tied the countries together if an attack should happen. A development that had already caused serious unrest in Japan. In many ways Mishima’s story reads like a response to Japan’s political predicament but it’s a fairly unusual one. It’s centred on a wealthy but nondescript suburban family, the Osugis, who are living with a secret; the knowledge that they’re actually extraterrestrials inhabiting earthly bodies.
Mishima was a huge science fiction fan, as well as part of a Japanese organisation fixated on UFO sightings. His scenario builds on this fascination, as well as on tropes and plot points from commercial SF - his family are not unlike an extension of the pod people in the popular Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Social critique and science fiction often go hand in hand but Mishima’s take on the subgenre is particularly explicit, marrying intense literary realism, and documentary-like fact with fantastical forms of semi-philosophical debate. He intersperses accounts of flying saucers and glimpses of worlds beyond with aspects of Japanese cultural history as well as elements of Noh theatre – another interest of his which he felt had affinities with sf's hidden aliens and monstrous threats.
The Osugi family, who live in the shadow of the Johnson Military Base, believe they have a purpose, to rescue humanity from mass destruction. Leading their growing campaign for disarmament is father Juichiro, aided by his wife Iyoko, daughter Akiko and son Kazuo. Although as the story unfolds both son and daughter are caught up in “human” distractions. The Osugis provide an entry point for a searing examination of postwar Japanese society with its conflicted politics, growing materialism and emphasis on social status. Mishima brings in references to the disturbing mix of tendencies towards conformity in Japanese culture with its own brand of “red scare” linked to America’s virulent McCarthy era. The unassuming Osugi’s lack of interest in consumerism and social climbing marks them out for their neighbours as possible communist sympathisers, bringing a concerned public order official to their door. The Osugis are contrasted with a rival alien faction led by resentful academic Haguro. The Osugis want to bring harmony to an “unpleasant, disordered” planet. Haguro, however, is a nihilist and a misogynist, disgusted by humanity’s excesses and venal desires. His group seek to hasten rather than prevent all-out war. Mishima’s slow-burning narrative builds to a muted confrontation between these groupings, culminating in a curious debate about the nature of humanity and whether it’s actually worth saving.
It's a strange piece, initial sales were apparently poor and Mishima’s American publisher declined translation. But I found its quirky exploration of threats to existence, power, collective anxiety and alienation deeply intriguing and Mishima’s perspective on Japanese society compelling. It can be quite an intense read, and there are decidedly dry patches but it’s also laced with instances of absurdist, perversely deadpan humour. Sometimes deliberately provocative, in true Mishima fashion, sometimes verging on contemptuous - it can even be surprisingly tender. Mishima also treads a fine line between speculative fiction and parody, since it’s never entirely clear whether or not the Osugis are in the grip of a shared delusion, and he delights in introducing then subverting common sf tropes. At times this reminded me a little of Philip K. Dick’s dissection of American culture in his suburbia novels – that is if he hadn’t insisted on a strict divide between these and his sf work. In addition, Mishima’s story features stretches of marvellous imagery and memorably exquisite descriptions of the natural world – a stark contrast to his vision of man-made environments. Perhaps this divide is a means of highlighting his underlying preoccupation with existential questions, as Juichiro’s journey eventually forces him, and his family, to contemplate not just the meaning of life but how to live it. Although it’s a shame Mishima's women are so thinly, predictably drawn. Translated by Stephen Dodd.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Penguin Classics for an ARC
Mishima was a huge science fiction fan, as well as part of a Japanese organisation fixated on UFO sightings. His scenario builds on this fascination, as well as on tropes and plot points from commercial SF - his family are not unlike an extension of the pod people in the popular Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Social critique and science fiction often go hand in hand but Mishima’s take on the subgenre is particularly explicit, marrying intense literary realism, and documentary-like fact with fantastical forms of semi-philosophical debate. He intersperses accounts of flying saucers and glimpses of worlds beyond with aspects of Japanese cultural history as well as elements of Noh theatre – another interest of his which he felt had affinities with sf's hidden aliens and monstrous threats.
The Osugi family, who live in the shadow of the Johnson Military Base, believe they have a purpose, to rescue humanity from mass destruction. Leading their growing campaign for disarmament is father Juichiro, aided by his wife Iyoko, daughter Akiko and son Kazuo. Although as the story unfolds both son and daughter are caught up in “human” distractions. The Osugis provide an entry point for a searing examination of postwar Japanese society with its conflicted politics, growing materialism and emphasis on social status. Mishima brings in references to the disturbing mix of tendencies towards conformity in Japanese culture with its own brand of “red scare” linked to America’s virulent McCarthy era. The unassuming Osugi’s lack of interest in consumerism and social climbing marks them out for their neighbours as possible communist sympathisers, bringing a concerned public order official to their door. The Osugis are contrasted with a rival alien faction led by resentful academic Haguro. The Osugis want to bring harmony to an “unpleasant, disordered” planet. Haguro, however, is a nihilist and a misogynist, disgusted by humanity’s excesses and venal desires. His group seek to hasten rather than prevent all-out war. Mishima’s slow-burning narrative builds to a muted confrontation between these groupings, culminating in a curious debate about the nature of humanity and whether it’s actually worth saving.
It's a strange piece, initial sales were apparently poor and Mishima’s American publisher declined translation. But I found its quirky exploration of threats to existence, power, collective anxiety and alienation deeply intriguing and Mishima’s perspective on Japanese society compelling. It can be quite an intense read, and there are decidedly dry patches but it’s also laced with instances of absurdist, perversely deadpan humour. Sometimes deliberately provocative, in true Mishima fashion, sometimes verging on contemptuous - it can even be surprisingly tender. Mishima also treads a fine line between speculative fiction and parody, since it’s never entirely clear whether or not the Osugis are in the grip of a shared delusion, and he delights in introducing then subverting common sf tropes. At times this reminded me a little of Philip K. Dick’s dissection of American culture in his suburbia novels – that is if he hadn’t insisted on a strict divide between these and his sf work. In addition, Mishima’s story features stretches of marvellous imagery and memorably exquisite descriptions of the natural world – a stark contrast to his vision of man-made environments. Perhaps this divide is a means of highlighting his underlying preoccupation with existential questions, as Juichiro’s journey eventually forces him, and his family, to contemplate not just the meaning of life but how to live it. Although it’s a shame Mishima's women are so thinly, predictably drawn. Translated by Stephen Dodd.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Penguin Classics for an ARC
September 28, 2021
Insanely underrated, and a Mishima classic that truly deserves an English translation.
Not so much science fiction as a contemplation over life, love, death and what it fundamentally means to be human. Written during the cold war, with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in fresh memory, this is also one of Mishimas more political works – but not in the way you’d think.
A hauntingly beautiful book that will stay with me for a long time.
Not so much science fiction as a contemplation over life, love, death and what it fundamentally means to be human. Written during the cold war, with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in fresh memory, this is also one of Mishimas more political works – but not in the way you’d think.
A hauntingly beautiful book that will stay with me for a long time.
July 4, 2022
'All healthy human beings live according to the same song: Ah, I want to die. But in the end, I won’t. This is the human song of life sung everywhere all the time. By the lathe in the small workshop, in the shade of white sheets fluttering on the line, in the crowded trains as they come and go, in the backstreets dotted with puddles.'
Not sure when this was written, I will simply assume that it's one of his earlier work, because his ideas are all over the place. Structurally, also a mess. Chaotic, but somehow works for the 'plot'. But despite the chaos, there is some beauty to be found. This is definitely my least favourite Mishima, but I can't say it was badly written. Just very rushed, very angsty, and just not well composed like his other novels. There are some bits in here that remind me of why I'm afraid of loving Mishima too much, because I don't believe/agree with a lot of his (mostly political) ideas. He plays with that a lot in this book, and not very well. Drags a bit, and the narrative tone lacks control (which could be frustrating to read; and it was for me). The ending, loose, and rushed. I kept thinking I'd rather try read 新世界より Shinsekai Yori (great anime; and/but I need to read the novel properly again) since they both deal with very similar themes. Different beasts, but same concept/conflict. Full RTC later.
''Have you never considered how disappointed humans must have been when they directly confronted the simple conditions of human existence, when they became aware that all they needed to survive was bread? They must have been the first humans on Earth to contemplate suicide. Imagine a man who, after some sad incident, determines to kill himself tomorrow. Today, with some hesitation, he eats his bread. After much thought, he postpones suicide until the day after next. The next day, too, he eats bread in some trepidation. He keeps delaying things day after day, and every day he eats his bread … One particular day, he suddenly realizes that he can live an aimless and meaningless life on bread alone. He is alive right now, and it is all thanks to bread. There is no greater truth than that. He is seized by a terrifying despair, but his despair will never be resolved through suicide. After all, he is not in despair about being alive, which is the usual cause of suicide, but despair about life itself. Increasingly, despair is what sustains him.
'He has to make something out of this despair. He needs to replace suicide with something unique in order to take his revenge on cool-headed political knowledge. He comes up with the idea of surreptitiously creating pointless wind-holes in his body without letting on to the politicians. All sorts of meaning spill out of the holes. Only the consumption of bread continues unabated. The eternal search for the next piece of bread, and the next, and the next. The political rulers themselves may not know it, but they are duty bound to keep the people supplied with bread in order to guarantee the meaninglessness of their existence...'
June 1, 2022
Do not read. Not fit for human consumption. Unhinged book about genocidal aliens and cold war paranoia so real I am not surprised it was never translated until only a month ago. I might make a video review but a GoodReads and Instagram post might be enough for something I think might be better not existing. Suffice it to say it's not clear why the alien family experience pregnancy and a stomach ulcer, and the story felt geared up to be a scifi romance but turned into a pessimistic monologue that you'd be better served for through reading actual pessimistic philosophers (as they are more conservative and sparing with their words). I like Mishima's writing generally, but the things I like it for were not present here (oedipal nightmare atmosphere with progressive tension that feels like a psychological horror). This just feels like it needs a lot more editing, a polemic that could have been a philosophical novel, if it wasn't so thiny spread. With no likeable characters AND no clear rationale for their motives, there wasn't a lot to hope for?
Total side note but the book is also printed on flimsy card, it feels like a birthday card you worry will be damaged before delivery, and for £13 I wonder why I bothered!
Not my worst novel experience, I was feeling this was 3* until the bad aliens came in. Not as bad as The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus, but Beautiful Star is probably the most hateful other thing I ever read.
Total side note but the book is also printed on flimsy card, it feels like a birthday card you worry will be damaged before delivery, and for £13 I wonder why I bothered!
Not my worst novel experience, I was feeling this was 3* until the bad aliens came in. Not as bad as The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus, but Beautiful Star is probably the most hateful other thing I ever read.
November 3, 2023
I read Beautiful Star (1962) by Yukio Mishima after it was chosen by my book group. Yukio Mishima considered this book to be his masterpiece yet it was only translated into English in 2022.
I generally enjoy Japanese fiction but this was not wholly successful. Written soon after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this is steeped in Cold War paranoia and the dread of nuclear annihilation.
The Osugi family, an ordinary and fairly affluent family from the city of Hanno believe they are aliens: Juichiro, the father, is from Mars; Iyoko, the mother, is from Jupiter; Kazuo, the son, is from Mercury; and Akiko, the daughter, is from Venus. Are the Osugi family deluded or are they really aliens? There's evidence that points to either outcome and I'd guess Yukio Mishima would say it's irrelevant.
It certainly contains some memorable scenes, and the father, son, and daughter all have some interesting adventures. Equally some of the secondary characters have their moments too, not least Takemiya, a playboy Noh performer, the ambitious politician Kazuo, and the sinister Haguro.
Overall though it's a strange, incoherent and occasionally tedious novel. I was unsure how seriously Yukio Mishima expects it to be taken. Most of the final fifty pages are a dull debate on whether humanity is worth saving, which means it all fizzles out somewhat despite a slight upturn when the novel finally concludes.
3/5
'Interplanetary, quite extraordinary . . . awash with dark humour and scenes of intense beauty' Financial Times
'One of the greatest avant-garde Japanese writers of the twentieth century' New Yorker
Beautiful Star is a 1962 tale of family, love, nuclear war and UFOs, and was considered by Mishima to be one of his very best books.
Translated into English for the first time, this atmospheric black comedy tells the story of the Osugi family, who come to the sudden realisation that each of them hails from a different planet: Father from Mars, mother from Jupiter, son from Mercury and daughter from Venus. This extra-terrestrial knowledge brings them closer together, and convinces them that they have a mission: to find others of their kind, and save humanity from the imminent threat of the atomic bomb...
I generally enjoy Japanese fiction but this was not wholly successful. Written soon after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this is steeped in Cold War paranoia and the dread of nuclear annihilation.
The Osugi family, an ordinary and fairly affluent family from the city of Hanno believe they are aliens: Juichiro, the father, is from Mars; Iyoko, the mother, is from Jupiter; Kazuo, the son, is from Mercury; and Akiko, the daughter, is from Venus. Are the Osugi family deluded or are they really aliens? There's evidence that points to either outcome and I'd guess Yukio Mishima would say it's irrelevant.
It certainly contains some memorable scenes, and the father, son, and daughter all have some interesting adventures. Equally some of the secondary characters have their moments too, not least Takemiya, a playboy Noh performer, the ambitious politician Kazuo, and the sinister Haguro.
Overall though it's a strange, incoherent and occasionally tedious novel. I was unsure how seriously Yukio Mishima expects it to be taken. Most of the final fifty pages are a dull debate on whether humanity is worth saving, which means it all fizzles out somewhat despite a slight upturn when the novel finally concludes.
3/5
'Interplanetary, quite extraordinary . . . awash with dark humour and scenes of intense beauty' Financial Times
'One of the greatest avant-garde Japanese writers of the twentieth century' New Yorker
Beautiful Star is a 1962 tale of family, love, nuclear war and UFOs, and was considered by Mishima to be one of his very best books.
Translated into English for the first time, this atmospheric black comedy tells the story of the Osugi family, who come to the sudden realisation that each of them hails from a different planet: Father from Mars, mother from Jupiter, son from Mercury and daughter from Venus. This extra-terrestrial knowledge brings them closer together, and convinces them that they have a mission: to find others of their kind, and save humanity from the imminent threat of the atomic bomb...
July 11, 2023
I need to buy another copy so I can annotate this princess
August 27, 2022
Surprisingly down to earth, and VERY funny.
March 15, 2023
Super bizarre pseudo sci-fi Cold War era novel about a wealthy, politically and socially disengaged nuclear family who all gradually come to believe themselves to be extraterrestrials from four different planets in our solar system.
The "Martian" father, Juichiro, makes it his mission to ask humanity to come together in peace and harmony against the imminent threat of nuclear annihilation. He has his daughter Akiko send a harshly-worded letter to Khrushchev asking him to please not launch nukes on the United States, thank you very much. He founds the Universal Friendship Association with the goal of uniting humanity in the knowledge that they all think their lives are at least a little bit meaningless, and argues that this meaningless is what will prevent humans form wanting to launch nuclear missiles to kill themselves. Is this delusional? Is he kind of right?
The most interesting character to me is that of the daughter Akiko who believes she is from Venus. She takes a trip to Kanazawa to meet up with a boy who claims to be Venusian himself and returns from the trip pregnant. She claims she has not lost her "Venusian purity" by having sex with that man, and that the pregnancy is the result of Venusian mating rituals that involve non-sexual procreation. But the man is later revealed to likely be a player and very much human. Still though, she believes the pregnancy is an immaculate conception. Her character to me can be used to read the whole family as being utterly disconnected from reality. Their alien origins are false, their ideals of saving humanity are trite, and their vanity prevents them from seeing beyond themselves. But, if she's right, and if she really didn't have sex with that man and he really was Venusian too, then perhaps the opposite is true: they really are aliens who will save humanity from the nuclear threat by revealing to humans the beauty in the fleeting emptiness of their virtues.
Here lies the major issue in my understanding of this novel, and the reason that I can't decide if I think it's a genius masterpiece or misguided philosophical and political treatise. I can't tell where the satire ends and the sincere political arguments begin, or if the novel works exclusively as one or the other. Each time I consider different scenes in my mind I find myself bouncing between both sides of interpretation. But maybe that's what makes the novel so great — the ideas and circumstances it posits can easily be seen as either farcical and naive or beautiful and insightful.
Some fun quotes:
A random policeman: "I'm telling you, intellectuals with a little bit of money are the worst kind. Ordinary people like us, good, kind-hearted folk, always lose out. ... We're deeply compassionate and easily moved to tears, and our whole lives we never flinch from standing up against things we don't agree with."
At a playhouse: The final piece was a new work by Yukio Mishima, entitled The Sardine Hawker and the Dragnet of Love. When the professor opined that this kind of new work, written like a novel, was not worth watching, the other two concurred.
"Imagine a man who, after some sad incident, determines to kill himself tomorrow. Today, with some hesitation, he eats his bread. After much thought, he postpones suicide until the day after next. ... One particular day, he suddenly realizes that he can live an aimless and meaningless life on bread alone. He is alive right now, and it is all thanks to bread. There is no greater truth than that. He is seized by a terrifying despair, but his despair will never be resolved through suicide. After all, he is not in despair about being alive, which is the usual cause of suicide, but despair about life itself. Increasingly, despair is what sustains him."
A proposed tombstone epitaph for humanity:
Here sleeps the human species.
They ended up lying all the time,
They offered up flowers for both good and bad fortune,
They often kept small birds,
They were frequently late getting to appointments
And they often laughed.
May they rest forever in eternal peace.
The "Martian" father, Juichiro, makes it his mission to ask humanity to come together in peace and harmony against the imminent threat of nuclear annihilation. He has his daughter Akiko send a harshly-worded letter to Khrushchev asking him to please not launch nukes on the United States, thank you very much. He founds the Universal Friendship Association with the goal of uniting humanity in the knowledge that they all think their lives are at least a little bit meaningless, and argues that this meaningless is what will prevent humans form wanting to launch nuclear missiles to kill themselves. Is this delusional? Is he kind of right?
The most interesting character to me is that of the daughter Akiko who believes she is from Venus. She takes a trip to Kanazawa to meet up with a boy who claims to be Venusian himself and returns from the trip pregnant. She claims she has not lost her "Venusian purity" by having sex with that man, and that the pregnancy is the result of Venusian mating rituals that involve non-sexual procreation. But the man is later revealed to likely be a player and very much human. Still though, she believes the pregnancy is an immaculate conception. Her character to me can be used to read the whole family as being utterly disconnected from reality. Their alien origins are false, their ideals of saving humanity are trite, and their vanity prevents them from seeing beyond themselves. But, if she's right, and if she really didn't have sex with that man and he really was Venusian too, then perhaps the opposite is true: they really are aliens who will save humanity from the nuclear threat by revealing to humans the beauty in the fleeting emptiness of their virtues.
Here lies the major issue in my understanding of this novel, and the reason that I can't decide if I think it's a genius masterpiece or misguided philosophical and political treatise. I can't tell where the satire ends and the sincere political arguments begin, or if the novel works exclusively as one or the other. Each time I consider different scenes in my mind I find myself bouncing between both sides of interpretation. But maybe that's what makes the novel so great — the ideas and circumstances it posits can easily be seen as either farcical and naive or beautiful and insightful.
Some fun quotes:
A random policeman: "I'm telling you, intellectuals with a little bit of money are the worst kind. Ordinary people like us, good, kind-hearted folk, always lose out. ... We're deeply compassionate and easily moved to tears, and our whole lives we never flinch from standing up against things we don't agree with."
At a playhouse: The final piece was a new work by Yukio Mishima, entitled The Sardine Hawker and the Dragnet of Love. When the professor opined that this kind of new work, written like a novel, was not worth watching, the other two concurred.
"Imagine a man who, after some sad incident, determines to kill himself tomorrow. Today, with some hesitation, he eats his bread. After much thought, he postpones suicide until the day after next. ... One particular day, he suddenly realizes that he can live an aimless and meaningless life on bread alone. He is alive right now, and it is all thanks to bread. There is no greater truth than that. He is seized by a terrifying despair, but his despair will never be resolved through suicide. After all, he is not in despair about being alive, which is the usual cause of suicide, but despair about life itself. Increasingly, despair is what sustains him."
A proposed tombstone epitaph for humanity:
Here sleeps the human species.
They ended up lying all the time,
They offered up flowers for both good and bad fortune,
They often kept small birds,
They were frequently late getting to appointments
And they often laughed.
May they rest forever in eternal peace.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 6, 2021
It's crazy this book is only translated to Swedish and Italian. It's just wonderful.
I really liked the idea of that emptiness inside us, that place where we all can feel so lonely, that we feel the need to fill with material things, religious ideas, cultural norms to feel alive. Fill with lies, pseudo-truths, dreams of our now and of a distant future to be able to cope. To be able to live on our beautiful star.
But that it is an emptiness that really dont need to be filled. It's there for a reason, it's what defines us as humans, gives us our humanity, compassion, empathy and when we finally are able to grasp that. Live with that. We will finally find peace with ourselves, who we are.
And we will see that the only emptiness we have to fill, is that of our stomachs, and to do that takes only a couple potatos, who ever you are, where ever you live. It dosen't need to be more difficult then that...
Not that dreams or visions are unnecessary, but that the poetry of a dancing bee can be enough to be able to live content and fulfilled.
I really liked the idea of that emptiness inside us, that place where we all can feel so lonely, that we feel the need to fill with material things, religious ideas, cultural norms to feel alive. Fill with lies, pseudo-truths, dreams of our now and of a distant future to be able to cope. To be able to live on our beautiful star.
But that it is an emptiness that really dont need to be filled. It's there for a reason, it's what defines us as humans, gives us our humanity, compassion, empathy and when we finally are able to grasp that. Live with that. We will finally find peace with ourselves, who we are.
And we will see that the only emptiness we have to fill, is that of our stomachs, and to do that takes only a couple potatos, who ever you are, where ever you live. It dosen't need to be more difficult then that...
Not that dreams or visions are unnecessary, but that the poetry of a dancing bee can be enough to be able to live content and fulfilled.
November 11, 2022
I thought this was going to be angry hot young gay Japanese men in space. It wasn't.
There's a huge long conversation towards the end where they discuss whether humans should be eradicated or not. It feels incredibly dated. It's funny that we kind of got over nuclear bombs when the Cold War ended, right?
Kochi gets a mention!:
“At just gone seven in the evening, two middle-school students from the village of Ogawa in Sakawa-cho, Takaoka District, Kochi Prefecture, reported having seen an elliptical object, enveloped in a thin membrane, fly through the southern sky at incredible speed from east to west, and disappear into the mountains.”
Bits:
“Akiko lowered her head and flatly rejected self-analysis, that vulgar human practice tantamount to checking the contents of one’s own purse.”
“The expression on Iyoko’s face as she spoke revealed the ruthlessness of a housewife who was happiest when rinsing her chopping board under the tap.”
“People became a race of white-collar workers, and the powerful hairy arms of the blacksmith were no longer needed.”
There's a huge long conversation towards the end where they discuss whether humans should be eradicated or not. It feels incredibly dated. It's funny that we kind of got over nuclear bombs when the Cold War ended, right?
Kochi gets a mention!:
“At just gone seven in the evening, two middle-school students from the village of Ogawa in Sakawa-cho, Takaoka District, Kochi Prefecture, reported having seen an elliptical object, enveloped in a thin membrane, fly through the southern sky at incredible speed from east to west, and disappear into the mountains.”
Bits:
“Akiko lowered her head and flatly rejected self-analysis, that vulgar human practice tantamount to checking the contents of one’s own purse.”
“The expression on Iyoko’s face as she spoke revealed the ruthlessness of a housewife who was happiest when rinsing her chopping board under the tap.”
“People became a race of white-collar workers, and the powerful hairy arms of the blacksmith were no longer needed.”
May 28, 2022
Good idea, absolutely dreadful execution. Were it not for a couple of wonderful images and quotes, this would have been one star. It’s as if the author wanted to philosophise on the nature of humanity and life, but realised he couldn’t muster an actual philosophical treaty, so he devised instead an excuse to have a bunch of unlikeable extraterrestrial characters masquerading as humans argue for 50 pages (one conversation— 50 pages, same argument repeated over and over again) about humanity and whether or not it can or should be saved.
There is not one likeable character in this whole damn book— alien or human. Not to mention that the humans are portrayed in a horrid cartoonish way, which made me guess he was probably attempting some sort of satire but either that got lost in translation, or he just lacked the ability to make it read as such.
Half of the stuff that happens in the book has no bearing on the actual, thin as fuck plot. Not to mention the fact that up until the second half of the book, I still expected a “gotcha” moment where it would turn out the whole family was suffering from some sort of mass delusion.
Actually, the more I think about it, the more pissed off I am. Demoted to one star.
Black comedy my ass.
Meditation on what it means to be human my ass. Someone forgot the golden rule of “show, don’t tell”. Terry Pratchett did it better and with no pretentious, florid language. I am fuming.
There is not one likeable character in this whole damn book— alien or human. Not to mention that the humans are portrayed in a horrid cartoonish way, which made me guess he was probably attempting some sort of satire but either that got lost in translation, or he just lacked the ability to make it read as such.
Half of the stuff that happens in the book has no bearing on the actual, thin as fuck plot. Not to mention the fact that up until the second half of the book, I still expected a “gotcha” moment where it would turn out the whole family was suffering from some sort of mass delusion.
Actually, the more I think about it, the more pissed off I am. Demoted to one star.
Black comedy my ass.
Meditation on what it means to be human my ass. Someone forgot the golden rule of “show, don’t tell”. Terry Pratchett did it better and with no pretentious, florid language. I am fuming.
March 20, 2024
"Lo que sentimos cuando avistamos platillos volantes, cuando vemos en la distancia nuestra estrella natal, ese sentimiento de estar aislados de todo lo terrestre es lo que los humanos llaman equivocadamente poesía".
Solo Mishima podía escribir esta historia sobre extraterrestres en el armario que se creen con la misión divina de salvar a la humanidad (o destruirla). Comedia negra existencialista, llena de fe y desesperanza, como una versión megalómana y pop de El pabellón de oro.
Solo Mishima podía escribir esta historia sobre extraterrestres en el armario que se creen con la misión divina de salvar a la humanidad (o destruirla). Comedia negra existencialista, llena de fe y desesperanza, como una versión megalómana y pop de El pabellón de oro.
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October 29, 2022😐🤷
November 10, 2022
the fuck?!
May 15, 2025
Oh dear, here's company for Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, and Ursula K Le Guin plus 3 other writers whom I won't name. Step forward Yukio Mishima, who I just can't get along with. I've no idea why, but this book just bored me near rigid and I didn't understand the humour that the critics all say is in the novel.
This is the tale of the Osugi family who realise that each of them comes from a different planet - Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter. Even in Rendezvous with Rama no one came from Venus and Jupiter so this 'idea' left me a little cold to say the least, but the family have good intentions at heart as they want to save the human race from nuclear annihilation. They need help from other people born on different planets, but finding them is not entirely straightforward.
There are plenty of flying saucer sightings.
This is the tale of the Osugi family who realise that each of them comes from a different planet - Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter. Even in Rendezvous with Rama no one came from Venus and Jupiter so this 'idea' left me a little cold to say the least, but the family have good intentions at heart as they want to save the human race from nuclear annihilation. They need help from other people born on different planets, but finding them is not entirely straightforward.
There are plenty of flying saucer sightings.
September 20, 2025
2025 #63 🛸
Odiato dall’inizio alla fine
Odiato dall’inizio alla fine
July 7, 2022
hmm. this book didn’t quite do it for me. all of the characters were pretty unlikable and somewhat predictable, meaning i wasn’t really invested in their storylines. the narrative was also just a bit jumbled with a lacklustre ending. the way in which women were both written and talked about was quite disappointing, though somewhat unsurprising given Mishima’s political views.
however, what saved this book was its interesting philosophical discussion of humanity. there were some really beautiful passages on this, reflecting on what it means to be human from a seemingly outsider perspective, which I did find to be worth reading.
it is not a book i would necessarily recommend, as on the whole as the story itself feels unpolished and is not particularly captivating. i do appreciate how Mishima is able to capture thought-provoking reflections of human nature in such a beautifully written way though.
however, what saved this book was its interesting philosophical discussion of humanity. there were some really beautiful passages on this, reflecting on what it means to be human from a seemingly outsider perspective, which I did find to be worth reading.
it is not a book i would necessarily recommend, as on the whole as the story itself feels unpolished and is not particularly captivating. i do appreciate how Mishima is able to capture thought-provoking reflections of human nature in such a beautifully written way though.
May 27, 2025
Infamous writer Yukio Mishima; his descriptions of beauty resonate with me, and this book is full of them.
The story of a family who discover independently that they are all extraterrestrials, when they each separately see flying saucers. I loved that not until the very last sentence could you tell whether the characters in the book are delusional or not. It was very interesting to see how differently the otherwise normal people began to behave once they realised they are not human.
Towards the end of the book I was leaning more towards 4 stars, but the very end redeemed it.
You can tell throughout the book that it was written by a Japanese writer, despite the otherwise very good translation.
Beautiful book, worth reading.
The story of a family who discover independently that they are all extraterrestrials, when they each separately see flying saucers. I loved that not until the very last sentence could you tell whether the characters in the book are delusional or not. It was very interesting to see how differently the otherwise normal people began to behave once they realised they are not human.
Towards the end of the book I was leaning more towards 4 stars, but the very end redeemed it.
You can tell throughout the book that it was written by a Japanese writer, despite the otherwise very good translation.
Beautiful book, worth reading.
May 28, 2025
Attenzione alle aspettative: non è un romanzo fantascientifico, è invece una commedia satirica, ed è strettamente politica, cinica, nichilista e filosofica. Personalmente l'ho trovato inizialmente divertente e grottesco, successivamente angosciante per il suo carattere esistenziale, cupo e misantropo, e questo l'ha resa per me una lettura inaspettata e poco fluida.
June 29, 2023
definitely don't know how to feel about this one. you can tell this is mishima's first book, as it is very unorganised whether is be plot or structure wise. there's still moments where you see his genius shine and just like in all of his other works, it's beautifully written. but it just lacks guidance, you can never understand if it's a satire or a true political statement. and those 50 odd pages, towards the end, of weird "does humanity really deserve to live" rant really were... something
July 9, 2022
Like with everything I read from Mishima, it makes me consider how different people can be. Interesting, funny, philosophical, like being in a dream, the world isn’t exactly what is seems. Inside a human being is a whole universe. I really loved it.
December 14, 2024
For the most part, I interpreted this book as a family with a socially contagious (but useful) mass delusion.
A tale of becoming alien to make sense of alienation.
Father, Jūichirō, sees a flying saucer *after* reading about them and becoming “firmly convinced of the existence of flying saucers”. Each of the family members sees a flying saucer subsequent to Jūichirō telling them about what he has seen. Later, the two siblings (Kazuo and Akiko) seem to be doubtful of the fact that the other has truly seen a flying saucer — possibly a projection, a tell, that they have both made up the whole thing. But most telling, I think, is the description of the alienation Jūichirō has experienced throughout his life, which seems to be positioned as a catalyst for him coming to believe he is an actual alien:
“Jūichirō sensed a total lack of coherence in the world. Everything was horribly broken. There was no connection between the steering wheel and tyres of a car, no link between brain and stomach in a human being.”
Jūichirō’s feelings of disconnection also seem linked to trying to make sense of the world, in the wake of Hiroshima, and within the present threat of nuclear war:
“…he was a delicate soul who found it difficult to gaze upon such a fractured world with indifference. Cold War and global insecurity; the veneer of pacifism, people hurtling downhill towards imbecility between moments of respite, the illusion of prosperity, crazy hedonism , the effeminate vanity of the world’s political leaders. All these things pricked his fingers like thorns in a bouquet of roses that he could not resist picking up. Later, such things came to strike Jūichirō as harbingers of grace, and he prepared himself to take on the heavy responsibility for a world that had fallen into such adverse circumstances.”
My interpretation is that Jūichirō’s belief that he is a benevolent otherworldly being is way to make sense of his feelings of isolation and disconnection from his fellow human beings, and the world more broadly. It also lends him a sense of paternalistic purpose, empowerment and privilege — as he decides he must save humanity from itself (from nuclear war) — that he has been lacking throughout his life.
It is interesting to note the contrast with Akiko’s motivations for taking on an alien ‘persona’. Akiko is a remarkably beautiful teenage girl. She seems to have internalised her parent’s focus on her purity (a central principle in Japanese culture). Akiko’s perception of herself as a Venusian (known for their beauty and purity) facilitates a (welcome) sense of disconnection from others and the world. Akiko seems to experience this as a feeling of aloof superiority to humans, who she describes with disdain. Like most teenagers, Akiko is also trying to navigate the difficult first sparks of love and desire, in the context of a family and wider culture that values her purity. Her delusion is useful in elevating her (failed) relationship with Takemiya to “pure and elevated celestial love” and characterising her subsequent pregnancy as an immaculate conception.
The “three from Sendai” — the assistant professor, Haguro; the barber, Sone; and the bank clerk, Kurita — are introduced later, having recognised their alien origins — in contrast to Jūichirō — are hateful towards humans and believe it is their mission to save humanity by ensuring its complete and violent destruction. All of the men have their own very human, personal reasons for feeling rejected by others. For example, the incel bank clerk harbours a misogynistic hate towards women and views them as responsible for seducing and corrupting men and humanity as a whole.
Given that the three from Sendai see a flying saucer together, it is harder to support the narrative of collective delusion. I think Mishima is intentionally ambiguous and wants the reader to come to their own conclusions on the real or imagined nature of the characters’ situation. To me, it is unclear whether the three had known about Jūichirō’s public lecture campaign before or after seeing the flying saucer together. It very well could have been before, as we know that Jūichirō starts to put adverts in newspapers to “find kindred souls” and establish the Universal Friendship Association to facilitate world peace.
I also think it is significant that while the Ōsugi family come to believe they are from different planets (and so start to experience some distance from one another), the three from Sendai believe they are from the same planet. Through this, they experience a sense of bonding and connection, which they had been missing in their lives before. Though this sense of connection isn’t loving and traditionally positive because they are bonded through their boiling and violent hatred of humans.
Ultimately I think Mishima’s book is an (ironic) character study of different people making sense of their own very human experiences by believing they are not of this world.
A tale of becoming alien to make sense of alienation.
Father, Jūichirō, sees a flying saucer *after* reading about them and becoming “firmly convinced of the existence of flying saucers”. Each of the family members sees a flying saucer subsequent to Jūichirō telling them about what he has seen. Later, the two siblings (Kazuo and Akiko) seem to be doubtful of the fact that the other has truly seen a flying saucer — possibly a projection, a tell, that they have both made up the whole thing. But most telling, I think, is the description of the alienation Jūichirō has experienced throughout his life, which seems to be positioned as a catalyst for him coming to believe he is an actual alien:
“Jūichirō sensed a total lack of coherence in the world. Everything was horribly broken. There was no connection between the steering wheel and tyres of a car, no link between brain and stomach in a human being.”
Jūichirō’s feelings of disconnection also seem linked to trying to make sense of the world, in the wake of Hiroshima, and within the present threat of nuclear war:
“…he was a delicate soul who found it difficult to gaze upon such a fractured world with indifference. Cold War and global insecurity; the veneer of pacifism, people hurtling downhill towards imbecility between moments of respite, the illusion of prosperity, crazy hedonism , the effeminate vanity of the world’s political leaders. All these things pricked his fingers like thorns in a bouquet of roses that he could not resist picking up. Later, such things came to strike Jūichirō as harbingers of grace, and he prepared himself to take on the heavy responsibility for a world that had fallen into such adverse circumstances.”
My interpretation is that Jūichirō’s belief that he is a benevolent otherworldly being is way to make sense of his feelings of isolation and disconnection from his fellow human beings, and the world more broadly. It also lends him a sense of paternalistic purpose, empowerment and privilege — as he decides he must save humanity from itself (from nuclear war) — that he has been lacking throughout his life.
It is interesting to note the contrast with Akiko’s motivations for taking on an alien ‘persona’. Akiko is a remarkably beautiful teenage girl. She seems to have internalised her parent’s focus on her purity (a central principle in Japanese culture). Akiko’s perception of herself as a Venusian (known for their beauty and purity) facilitates a (welcome) sense of disconnection from others and the world. Akiko seems to experience this as a feeling of aloof superiority to humans, who she describes with disdain. Like most teenagers, Akiko is also trying to navigate the difficult first sparks of love and desire, in the context of a family and wider culture that values her purity. Her delusion is useful in elevating her (failed) relationship with Takemiya to “pure and elevated celestial love” and characterising her subsequent pregnancy as an immaculate conception.
The “three from Sendai” — the assistant professor, Haguro; the barber, Sone; and the bank clerk, Kurita — are introduced later, having recognised their alien origins — in contrast to Jūichirō — are hateful towards humans and believe it is their mission to save humanity by ensuring its complete and violent destruction. All of the men have their own very human, personal reasons for feeling rejected by others. For example, the incel bank clerk harbours a misogynistic hate towards women and views them as responsible for seducing and corrupting men and humanity as a whole.
Given that the three from Sendai see a flying saucer together, it is harder to support the narrative of collective delusion. I think Mishima is intentionally ambiguous and wants the reader to come to their own conclusions on the real or imagined nature of the characters’ situation. To me, it is unclear whether the three had known about Jūichirō’s public lecture campaign before or after seeing the flying saucer together. It very well could have been before, as we know that Jūichirō starts to put adverts in newspapers to “find kindred souls” and establish the Universal Friendship Association to facilitate world peace.
I also think it is significant that while the Ōsugi family come to believe they are from different planets (and so start to experience some distance from one another), the three from Sendai believe they are from the same planet. Through this, they experience a sense of bonding and connection, which they had been missing in their lives before. Though this sense of connection isn’t loving and traditionally positive because they are bonded through their boiling and violent hatred of humans.
Ultimately I think Mishima’s book is an (ironic) character study of different people making sense of their own very human experiences by believing they are not of this world.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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July 15, 2023Not going to give this a star rating, but instead I'll say that this is nothing like any other Mishima fiction I've read, and I've read nearly everything of his that's been translated into English. I had a hard time getting into Beautiful Star, but it did pick up after the first two chapters. There are some interesting ideas in the novel, as one would expect from Mishima, and I found his UFO talk impressively consistent with what's being reported in contemporary media, 60 years after he wrote this, about UAPs (the novel centers around a family whose members believe that they've come to earth from different planets in order to save humanity from itself), but I'm not sure how much I can recommend it. I picked it up, actually, after hearing that some of the novel is set in Kanazawa where I live and have set my own novels. I suppose I'd recommend it for anyone interested in Mishima's range as a writer.
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March 3, 2023'Everything was horribly broken.'
'A world in which nothing had meaning, a higgledy-piggledy mess without harmony or unity.'
'The entire world's intellectual elite - it's scholars, eggheads, religious figures, artists - gathered in a single room and stripped naked, then jammed into a high walled enclosure and starved to death.'
'A world in which nothing had meaning, a higgledy-piggledy mess without harmony or unity.'
'The entire world's intellectual elite - it's scholars, eggheads, religious figures, artists - gathered in a single room and stripped naked, then jammed into a high walled enclosure and starved to death.'
July 10, 2024
Quirky story of a family of aliens acting like humans. A lot of interesting observations on what it means to be human. Chapters 8 and 9 - existential dread.
January 29, 2011
L'uomo cerca freneticamente gli altri uomini per concludere: "in fondo siamo uguali" e per pensare nello stesso tempo: "ma bene o male io sono diverso".
Mishima scrive di alieni e mostra il suo disprezzo verso l'umanità intera. Si può non amarlo?
A ben vedere, Stella meravigliosa risulta una lettura difficile: una narrazione fredda e fin troppo semplice, dei personaggi a dir poco detestabili, una storia che sembra non andare in nessuna direzione, a tratti persino noiosa. E tutto, alla fine, risulta essere il pretesto per mettere in piedi il dibattito tra diverse scuole di pensiero sulla vita e l'umanità. Sono queste ultime pagine il vero cuore del romanzo, e che si merita le quattro stellette: il resto, in effetti, è solo una storiella che per esser compresa dev'esser contestualizzata, e che serve solo a fare da sfondo.
Perché non scrivere allora un saggio? Ma forse così è più affascinante: l'idea che siano dei presunti alieni a discorrere di vita terrestre.
E poi alla fine rimane pure il dubbio: e se fossero soltanto quattro esaltati, convinti di essere degli alieni?
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In seguito alla lettura di Confessioni di una maschera, non ho potuto fare a meno di rivedere al ribasso tale giudizio...
Mishima scrive di alieni e mostra il suo disprezzo verso l'umanità intera. Si può non amarlo?
A ben vedere, Stella meravigliosa risulta una lettura difficile: una narrazione fredda e fin troppo semplice, dei personaggi a dir poco detestabili, una storia che sembra non andare in nessuna direzione, a tratti persino noiosa. E tutto, alla fine, risulta essere il pretesto per mettere in piedi il dibattito tra diverse scuole di pensiero sulla vita e l'umanità. Sono queste ultime pagine il vero cuore del romanzo, e che si merita le quattro stellette: il resto, in effetti, è solo una storiella che per esser compresa dev'esser contestualizzata, e che serve solo a fare da sfondo.
Perché non scrivere allora un saggio? Ma forse così è più affascinante: l'idea che siano dei presunti alieni a discorrere di vita terrestre.
E poi alla fine rimane pure il dubbio: e se fossero soltanto quattro esaltati, convinti di essere degli alieni?
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In seguito alla lettura di Confessioni di una maschera, non ho potuto fare a meno di rivedere al ribasso tale giudizio...
June 7, 2022
This book is a real struggle to rate. On the one hand, some truly beautiful and thought-provoking passages of writing (especially the very dialogue heavy penultimate chapters) and the fascinating premise make me want to love this book. But the story, if you could even call it that, is lacking in direction and seems to just meander meaninglessly from one unconnected scene to another. Not to mention, I found some of the period-typical misogyny (even if a lot of it was tongue-in-cheek or at least espoused by the apparent ‘villains’ of the novel) quite painful to get through.
All in all, I’d say this book is great in a fragmentary way: endlessly quotable but too disjointed to work together as a whole.
All in all, I’d say this book is great in a fragmentary way: endlessly quotable but too disjointed to work together as a whole.
August 21, 2017
la fantascienza secondo mishima: una scusa per parlare della natura umana. credo sia uno dei romanzi più atipici del maestro giapponese, e -per me- uno dei più memorabili (nonostante qualche pesantezza nei dialoghi). ah, c'è un'autocitazione assolutamente geniale: qualche volta anche mishima ride!
April 7, 2024
Great idea, not so great execution. The prose seems forced and pretentious. Anyway, I still love Mishima for his other books.
September 7, 2024
Underwhelming.
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