The Real Osamu Dazai

The twenty stories in this collection include:

• Memories — An autobiographical tale in which Dazai relates episodes from his own childhood and adolescence, showing his relationship with his family and his tendency towards introspection and self-dramatization
• On the Question of Apparel — A comic tour-de-force in which Dazai examines the hold that fashion has over him and how it relates to his own pathetic self-image
• A Poor Man's Got His Pride — A retelling of a story by 18th-century master of burlesque fiction Ihara Saikaku, about a fallen samurai who lives in poverty
• The Sound of Hammering — A love story set against the backdrop of the rebuilding of Tokyo after the city was totally destroyed during World War Two
• And sixteen other stories!

By turns hilarious, ironic, introspective, mystical and sarcastic, these stories present a fully rounded portrait of a talented writer who tried several times to take his own life and ultimately succeeded. An introduction by translator James O'Brien gives the background to Dazai's life and shows how the stories in this book, whether autobiographical or fictional, contribute to an understanding of one of Japan's greatest writers.