It seems a fair guess that this is the sweetest tale of teen love ever written by a suicidal gay fascist. Of course, that authorhood flavors how we read the novel and it does take a while to accept that some violent doom doesn't wait around the corner. But, take it on its own terms and it really quite beautiful.

Shinji Kubo is a young man on the cusp of independence, but, his father having died in the War, he helps maintain the household he shares with his mother and younger brother. They live on remote Uta-jima Island in the Gulf of Ise, where fishing provides the main livelihoods. Shinji works on an octopus boat; his mother is a pearl diver. Meanwhile, following his son's death, wealthy ship-owner Terukichi Miyata recalls his pretty teen daughter, Hatsue, from the island where he had adopted her out. Shinji and Hatsue are immediately attracted to one another and pursue an awkward courtship.

The main obstacles to their love come from two rivals who start rumors about the pair. Chiyoko is the daughter of the local lighthouse keeper and she had always thought that when she returned from university Shinji would be hers. Her disappointment, combined with her sensitivity about her own looks leads her to start telling tales. Yasuo Kawamoto is infatuated with Hatsue and thinks Shinji beneath her. He first tries raping her and then aids Chiyoko in impugning the couple's reputations. Given the size and insularity of their village, the gossip takes on a life of its own and soon her father hears of it.

The manner in which Shinji wins the father's approval is somewhat predictable, but totally unexpected is the generosity he shows Chiyoko. We root for the lovers and Mishima rewards us. Not the novel you expect.

(Reviewed:18-Oct-20)

Grade: (A) Orrin C. Judd

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Yukio Mishima Links:

    -WIKIPEDIA: Yukio Mishima
    -ENTRY: Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) - Pseudonym for Hiraoka Kimitake (Books & Writers)
    -FILMOGRAPHY: Yukio Mishima (IMDB)
    -ENTRY: Mishima Yukio: Japanese author (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
    -ENTRY: Yukio Mishima (Japan Visitor)
    -ENTRY: Mishima Yukio (New World Encyclopedia)
    -Featured Author: Yukio Mishima (With News and Reviews From the Archives of The New York Times)
    -EXCERPT: from Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima
    -EXCERPT: from Star: Yukio Mishima on the Beautiful Death of James Dean (Yukio Mishima)
    -BOOK SITE: The Sound of Waves (Penguin Random House)
    -WIKIPEDIA: The Sound of Waves
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima (Grade Saver)
    -STUDY GUIDE: Sound of Waves (Lit Charts)
    -STUDY GUIDE: Sound of Waves (IB English)
    -STUDY GUIDE: Sound of Waves (eNotes)
    -STUDY GUIDE: Sound of Waves (Study.com)
    -ESSAY: The men who worship Yukio Mishima: Bodybuilders are in love with an unattainable goal (OLIVER BATEMAN, 12/16/22, UnHerd)
    -ESSAY: Kamikaze of Beauty: On Yukio Mishima’s Sun and Steel (Brian Patrick Eha, tHE pOINT)
    -VIDEO: Legendary Japanese Author Yukio Mishima Muses About the Samurai Code (Which Inspired His Hapless 1970 Coup Attempt) (Open Culture)
    -AUDIO INTERVIEW: Yukio Mishima: Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima discusses his thirteenth novel The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea, first published in English in 1966, with host Warren Bower. Mishima also shares his thoughts about Japanese literature and the high readership of American literature in his home country. (The NYPR Archive Collections, Oct 25, 1965, WNYC)
    -VIDEO INTERVIEW: Yukio Mishima....Rare 1969 Interview In English: In a rare interview in colour that he gave to Canadian television in 1969, Mishima discusses the subject of Japanese nationalism and gives us his views on the prospect of the re-militarisation of the country.
    -PODCAST: Grappling with Yukio Mishima’s Murderous Children (Lit Century, June 15, 2021)
    -ESSAY: Japan’s most famous writer committed suicide after a failed coup attempt – now, new photos add more layers to the haunting act (Kirsten Cather, January 11, 2021, The Conversation)
    -ESSAY: Yukio Mishima: The strange tale of Japan’s infamous novelist (Thomas Graham, 24th November 2020, BBC)
    -ESSAY: A fanatic heart: On the 50th anniversary of his public suicide, Nigel Jones reflects on the strange life and bizarre death of the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima (Nigel Jones, 11/25/20, The Critic)
    -ESSAY: Yukio Mishima: The Turbulent Life Of A Conflicted Martyr (Beryl Belsky, 29 September 2016, Culture Trip)
    -ESSAY: Yukio Mishima – 'The Lost Samurai' (Japan Today, Jan. 12, 2014)
    -ESSAY: Yukio Mishima's enduring, unexpected influence: As the country marks the 45th anniversary of the prolific postwar novelist’s death this week, we take a step back (DAMIAN FLANAGAN, 11/21/15, THE JAPAN TIMES)
    -VIDEO INTERVIEW: Paul Schrader Discusses Yukio Mishima (The Dick Cavett Show, 11/25/1985)
    -VIDEO: The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima (BBC - Arena, 1985)
    -ESSAY: Blood and guts: Yukio Mishima's very public suicide fixed his image as a fascist fanatic. There was much more to the writer (Hywel Williams, Sun 24 Jun 2001, The Guardian)
    -ESSAY: Dead writer's knife is in Japan's heart Jonathan Watts, 24 Nov 2000, The Guardian)
    -ESSAY: The Importance of Being Mishima Yukio (Damian Flanagan, Nov 24, 2017, Nippon.com)
    -ESSAY: The Resurgence of a Japanese Literary Master: Fifty years after his death, Yukio Mishima is reemerging in translation (ERIC MARGOLIS, 7/31/20, Metropolis)
    -ESSAY: Yukio Mishima: Japan’s Cultural Martyr (Andrew Rankin, December 11, 2019, Quillette)
    -ESSAY: The life and death of Yukio Mishima: A tale of astonishing elegance and emotional brutality: A novel by one of Japan’s most revered writers is to be published in English for the first time. But the facts surrounding Yukio Mishima are almost stranger than fiction (David Barnett, 7/25/19, Independent)
    -ESSAY: Yukio Mishima in Ichigaya (Anna Sherman, August 20, 2019, Paris Review)
    -ARTICLE: Restored Footage at Centre of ‘Mishima’ Documentary on Controversial Literary Figure (Patrick Frater, Jan 8, 2020, Variety)
    -ESSAY: A Thing for Men in Uniforms: If fascism has had an allure for some gay men, it is anti-egalitarianism that provides the connective tissue—the belief that homosexuality belongs to an elite caste, an exclusive fraternity existing above the heterosexual masses and destined for greatness (James Kirchick, May 14, 2018, NY Review of Books)
    -ESSAY: Comment (E. J. Kahn and Frank Conroy, December 5, 1970, The New Yorker)
    -ESSAY: Yukio Mishima: Dialectics of Mind and Body (Dick Wagenaar and Yoshio Iwamoto, Winter 1975, Contemporary Literature)
    -ESSAY: Why we should read Yukio Mishima (Xi Chen, Feb 19, 2018·, Medium)
    -ESSAY: Portrait of the Author as a Historian: Yukio Mishima: Angered by his native country’s rush towards western-style modernisation, the acclaimed Japanese author committed a shocking act of protest. (Alexander Lee , 4/04/17, History Today)
    -ESSAY: When the Emperor Is a Void: Yukio Mishima and Fascism Today: Mishima’s Patriotism reveals the drives operating behind political movements and how ultranationalistic ideas become deeply entangled in the personal (Julia Shiota, the Margins)
    -ESSAY: The Essence of our Era: Yukio Mishima, Steve Bannon, and the Alt-Right (Europe Now)
    -ESSAY: Edging Toward Japan: Yukio Mishima's intriguing letters to a humble lighthouse worker (Damian Flanagan, April 21, 2020, Mainichi Japan)
    -ESSAY: Mishima Yukio: Everyone’s Favorite Homofascist (Vincent James Keith, 2013, Multitudes)
    -ESSAY: The Narcissism and Death of Yukio Mishima –From the Object Relational Point of View (Sadanobu Ushijima M.D, December 1987, Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences)
    -ESSAY: Primal Scene Derivatives in the Work of Yukio Mishima: The Primal Scene Fantasy (Ronald N. Turco, 2002, Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis)
    -ESSAY: Overcoming Modernity in Yukio Mishima (Joseph Verbovszky, DISCUSSIONS)
    -ESSAY: MISHIMA’S SUICIDE (JEFFREY MEYERS, Fall 2010, Michigan Quarterly Review)
    -ESSAY: In the Fascist Weight Room: 1968’s dangerous and grandiose fantasies (ELIZABETH SCHAMBELAN, Book Forum)
    -DISSERTATION: Craving for the absolute: The sublime and the tragic in Mishima Yukio's theatrical works (Yoshie Endo, University of Pennsylvania)
    -ESSAY: Yukio Mishima: Silk and Insight (Bill Lipsky, SF Bay City Times)
    -ESSAY: The Curious Case of Yukio Mishima (George Mullins, 9 April, 2018, The Bubble)
    -ARCHIVES: Mishima (Mainichi)
    -REVIEW ARCHIVES: Yukio Mishima (Publishers weekly)
    -REVIEW ARCHIVES: Yukio Mishima (Kirkus)
    -VIDEO ARCHIVES: Yukio Mishima (You Tube)
    -PODCAST REVIEW: #64- Transmitting Culture in Mishima's The Sound of Waves: This week, Scott and Karl read The Sound of Waves, a 1954 novel by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima (Great Books, Mar 27, 2020)
    -REVIEW: of The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima (edmund Fuller, August 19, 1956, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of Sound of Waves (Iain Maloney, Japan Times)
    -REVIEW: of Sound of Waves (Kirkus)
    -REVIEW: of Sound of Waves (Kevin Jae, Medium: Classic World Literature Book Reviews)
    -REVIEW: of Sound of Waves (Notes Taken)
    -REVIEW: of Sound of Waves (JESSICA SCHNEIDER, BLOGCRITICS.ORG)
    -REVIEW: of Sound of Waves (Tony's Reading List)
    -REVIEW: THE SOUND OF WAVES: A JAPANESE ADAPTATION OF "DAPHNIS AND CHLOE" (AKIHIKO WATANABE, The Classical Outlook)
    -REVIEW: of Sound of Waves (50 Books Project)
    -PODCAST REVIEW: The Sound of Waves (Book Talk with Jordan Owen and Stefan Di Iorio)
    -REVIEW: of Sound of Waves (Vishy's Blog)
    -REVIEW: of Sound of Waves (Winstonsdad's Blog)
    -REVIEW: of Sound of Waves (Pikes Peak Library teens)
    -REVIEW: of Sound of Waves (Danny Yee, Danny's Book reviews)
    -REVIEW: of Sound of Waves (AQ'S Reviews)
    -REVIEW: of Sound of Waves (A Reader of Literature)
    -REVIEW: of Sound of Waves (Profesorbaker's Worldwide Bilingual Blog)
    -REVIEW: of The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima (Kevin Jae, Medium: Classic World Literature Book Reviews)
    -REVIEW: of Star by Yukio Mishima (Jan Wilm, LA Review of Books)
    -REVIEW: of Star (Daniel Felsenthal, Kenyon Review)
    -REVIEW: of Star (Jeff Heinzl, Spectrum Culture)
    -REVIEW: of Star (Hans Rollmann, Pop Matters)
    -REVIEW: of The Sea of Fertility tetralogy by Yukio Mishima (Richard T Kelly, The Guardian)
    -REVIEW: of Sea of Fertility (80 Books blog)
    -REVIEW: of The Frolic of the Beasts by Yukio Mishima (John Nathan, NY Review of Books)
    -REVIEW: of Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima (Andrew Brookins, Powells)
    -REVIEW: of Sun and Steel by Yukio Mishima (Gore Vidal, NY Review of Books)
    -REVIEW: of Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima (Complete Review)
    -REVIEW: of Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima (James Smart, The guardian)
    -REVIEW: of Life for Sale (John Williams, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: Life for Sale: Yukio Mishima’s dark fantasies of imperial Japan (John Gray, New Statesman)
    -REVIEW: of Life for Sale (NY Journal of Books)
    -REVIEW: of Life for Sale (Andrew Taylor, The Spectator)
    -REVIEW: of Life for Sale (Ian Thompson, Evening Standard)
    -REVIEW: of Life for Sale (Angus Brown, Oxford Review of Books)
    -REVIEW: of Life for Sale (Boyd Tonkin, Times uk)
    -REVIEW: of Mario Bellatin’s "Mishima’s Illustrated Biography" (Jeffrey Zuckerman, LA Review of Books)
    -REVIEW: of Mishima's Sword: Travels in Search of a Samurai Legend by Christopher Ross (Anthony Thwaite, The Guardian)
    -REVIEW: of Mishima’s Sword (Victoria James, New Statesman)
    -REVIEW: ofPersona: A biography of Yukio Mishima by Naoki Inose (Paul McCarthy, Japan Times)
    -REVIEW: of Persona (Allan Massie, WSJ)
    -REVIEW: of Persona (Three Percent)

FILM


    -FILMOGRAPHY: Yukio Mishima (IMDB)
    -FILMOGRAPHY: Shiosai (1985) (IMDB)
    -FILMOGRAPHY: Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (IMDB)
    -FILMOGRAPHY: Mishima: A Life in Four Chapers (Rotten Tomatoes)
    -FILM REVIEW: Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)
    -FILM REVIEW: Mishima (Phillip French, The Observer)
    -FILM REVIEW: Mishima (Alex Lindstrom, Pop Matters)
    -FILM REVIEW: Mishima (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
    -FILM REVIEW: Mishima (Ian Buruma, NY Review of Books)
    -FILM REVIEW: Mishima (Michael Sragow, The New Yorker)
    -FILM REVIEW: Mishima (Anthony Lane, The new Yorker)
    -FILM REVIEW: Mishima (Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality & Practice)
    -FILM REVIEW: Mishima (Tom Graham, Little White Lies)
    -FILM REVIEW: Mishima: The Last Debate (James Hadfield, Japan Times)
    -REVIEW: of Last Debate (Philip Brasor)

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