The Real Osamu Dazai
By Osamu Dazai
Translated by James O’Brien
Tuttle Publishing
What It’s About
The Real Osamu Dazai gathers pieces of his writing that reveal different corners of his life, from the heavy and deeply personal to the funny and unexpectedly charming. Some sections are painful in the way only Dazai can be, full of self-destruction and despair, while others are surprisingly playful. What the collection captures most clearly is the closeness between his fiction and his life, how often they blurred, and how much of what he wrote was shaped by the women around him and the choices that followed.
What Stuck With Me
This book made me feel a lot of things. The darker stories are very hard to read, especially once you know that the suicide attempts in the text line up with his real life. There is a raw honesty in those pages that is almost too intimate at times, and I don’t think they will be easy for readers who are new to him. But then there are pieces like “Currency,” which follows the journey of a new 100 yen bill, or “Heed My Plea,” told from the perspective of Judas, and those stories are so strangely sweet, creative, and even funny that I found myself smiling. I loved them. They made me remember that Dazai was more than his despair.
What I realized is that the heaviness you feel in his more famous novels is not just literary style. He was working through his life in real time, putting his impulses and fears and guilt on the page. It makes a lot of his fiction make more sense, but it also makes him harder to read. Some of the stream-of-consciousness moments still lost me, but even those come back around eventually. You can almost feel him trying to understand himself and failing.
The parts that stayed with me most were the small human moments, not the dramatic ones. The glimpses of humor, the odd tenderness, and the stories that had nothing to do with death. Those felt like little pieces of him that people rarely talk about.
Would I Recommend It
Yes, but not to everyone.
If you already read Dazai, this collection fills in the gaps about who he was behind the work. It adds context, depth, and sometimes clarity. If you love Japanese lit and want a better understanding of why he wrote what he wrote, this is worth reading.
But if you are brand new to him, some of this will be too heavy. The suicide content is intense, and it needs a clear trigger warning. The lighter stories are wonderful and accessible, but the darker pieces are very personal and hit hard.
This is a book for readers who want to see the man behind the myth. It is also for people who know what they’re stepping into. Dazai is difficult, but he is also fascinating, and this collection shows both sides of him.
Thank you to Tuttle Publishing for the gifted copy.
Where to buy:
Available on Amazon and Bookshop.org. - Libro.fm
First time on Bookshop.org? Click for discount code.
Other Books You May Like:
Sisters in Yellow - emotional heaviness + Japanese literary tone
Days at the Torunka Café - quieter Japanese fiction
The Essential Akutagawa - another classic Japanese short story collection
The Beggar Student - a darker, more introspective look at isolation and the small fractures that shape a life.
