Life for Sale
.png){kind=spacer} First edition cover (Shueisha, 1968) | |
| Author | Yukio Mishima |
|---|---|
| Original title | 命売ります (Inochi Urimasu) |
| Translator | Stephen Dodd |
| Language | Japanese |
| Genre | Dark comedy[1] Satire[1] |
| Set in | Tokyo |
| Published | 21 May 1968–8 October 1968 in Weekly Playboy |
| Publisher | Shueisha |
Publication date | 25 December 1968 |
| Publication place | Japan |
Published in English | 1 August 2019 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 229[2] |
| OCLC | 54660296 |
| 895.63/5 | |
| LC Class | PL833.I7 I5 |
Life for Sale (Japanese: 命売ります, Hepburn: Inochi Urimasu) is a 1968 novel by Yukio Mishima. It was first serialised twenty-one times in the weekly magazine Weekly Playboy between 21 May 1968 and 8 October 1968. It was published in hardcover format by Shueisha on 25 December 1968. It was published in paperback by Chikuma Bunko on 24 February 1998.[3][4] The novel was translated into English by Stephen Dodd and published in paperback format in the United Kingdom by Penguin Classics on 1 August 2019.[5] The English translation received a wider release in paperback by Vintage International on 21 April 2020.[6]
In 2018, the novel was adapted as a BS TV Tokyo television drama starring Aoi Nakamura as Hanio Yamada.[7]
Plot
[edit]Hanio Yamada is a 27-year-old copywriter for Tokyo Ad who, after a suicide attempt, quits his job and advertises his own life for sale in a Tokyo newspaper. Yamada's life is shaken up when he agrees to the increasingly bizarre requests of those who respond to his offer.
Publication
[edit]Life for Sale was first serialised in Weekly Playboy twenty-one times between 21 May and 8 October in 1968. It was domestically published in hardcover format by Shueisha on 25 December 1968 and in paperback by Chikuma Bunko thirty years later on 24 February 1998.[3][4] The novel was translated into English by Stephen Dodd, the Professor of Japanese Literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies,[8] and published in paperback format in the United Kingdom by Penguin Classics on 1 August 2019.[5] The English translation received a wider release in paperback by Vintage International on 21 April 2020.[6]
Reception
[edit]Translation
[edit]Publishers Weekly gave the novel a positive review, writing, "Mishima's pungent insights into the challenges of postwar Japanese life are threaded brilliantly throughout" but felt, "The novel handles its female characters poorly, using them in a disposable way that feels dated."[1]
David Barnett, writing for The Independent, called the novel "funny and horrific and curious and thoroughly entertaining and should win Mishima a new generation of fans."[9]
James Smart of The Guardian wrote, "It may be only a footnote in his career, but this surreal tale offers a trenchant critique of a city that has misplaced its soul."[10]
Writing for the Evening Standard, Ian Thomson gave the novel a rave review, calling it "a sexy, camp delight. Beneath the hard- boiled dialogue and the gangster high jinks is a familiar indictment of consumerist Japan and a romantic yearning for the past."[11]
Writing for the New Statesman, philosopher John Gray said, "Life for Sale is not a great work of fiction, but it succeeds in capturing vividly the bathos of the self-pitying modern nihilist."[12]
Andrew Taylor, writing for The Spectator, praised the novel, writing, "This existential crime novel has an arresting premise and Mishima plays it for all it's worth."[13]
Television adaptation
[edit]The novel was adapted as a 10-episode BS TV Tokyo television drama in 2018, starring Aoi Nakamura as Hanio Yamada.[7][14]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Fiction Book Review: Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima, trans. from the Japanese by Stephen Dodd". Publishers Weekly. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
- ^ "命賣ります". CiNii. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
- ^ a b 佐藤秀明; 三島由紀夫; 井上隆史; 山中剛史 (August 2005). 決定版三島由紀夫全集. 新潮社. pp. 448–452. ISBN 978-4-10-642582-0.
- ^ a b 佐藤秀明; 三島由紀夫; 井上隆史; 山中剛史 (August 2005). 決定版三島由紀夫全集. 新潮社. pp. 540–561. ISBN 978-4-10-642582-0.
- ^ a b "Life for Sale". Penguin Books UK. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
- ^ a b "Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
- ^ a b "連続ドラマＪ 三島由紀夫「命売ります」". BS TV Tokyo. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
- ^ "Professor Stephen Dodd". SOAS University of London. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
- ^ Barnett, David (25 July 2019). "The life and death of Yukio Mishima: A tale of astonishing elegance and emotional brutality". The Independent. Archived from the original on 14 June 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
- ^ Smart, James (8 August 2019). "Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima review – a Japanese pulp classic". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
- ^ Thomson, Ian (1 August 2019). "Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima - review". Evening Standard. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
- ^ Gray, John (31 July 2019). "Yukio Mishima's dark fantasies of imperial Japan". New Statesman. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
- ^ Taylor, Andrew (3 August 2019). "Capers in crime: Life for Sale, by Yukio Mishima, reviewed". The Spectator. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
- ^ "中村蒼が美女と次々と… 『命売ります』ラブシーン3話分先行公開". ORICON NEWS. 10 January 2018. Retrieved 15 October 2024.