Yes, it all crushes my soul to pieces (I have to recuperate by watching cat videos), but beneath the darkness I find it to be deeply therapeutic. The week prior, I read The Seventh Day by Yu Hua, a poignant tale about a man navigating the afterlife on the backdrop of a destructive, rapidly modernizing China. Last week, I finished A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro, a story retracing the postwar memories of a mother dwelling on her daughter’s recent suicide. I am unashamed to say that, these days, I’ve been overindulging myself in depressing East Asian literature. Though originally published in 1948, the novel’s raw portrait of mental health and the struggle to fit in remains just as relevant in today’s society. Osamu Dazai’s ‘No Longer Human’ is a timeless modern classic, ranking as the second best-selling novel of all time in Japan.
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