Unsettling, upsetting, nauseating and enchanting: this is the new short story collection by Yukio Mishima, “Voices of the Fallen Heroes”, edited by Penguin Classics.
Controversial personality, a bitter ed nationalist and an amazing, talented author, Mishima charmed me with his raw and poetic writing style, with this lexical force and literary fieriness.
I admit that what I love more is his writing style (thanks to the amazing translation by Penguin as well) than his short stories themselves, which often left me confused, although I considered them very interesting. The stories I appreciated most were the upsetting “Peacock”, a dizzy union between death and beauty, body frailty and memory, and “Voices of the Fallen Heroes”, the manifest of young Japanese heroes, the coupists of 26th February incident and WWII kamikazes, betrayed by the emperor when he declared his mere humanity and by the government’s controversial choices. I empathises with the young fallen of this story, belonging by a generation of youth betrayed and ignored by the current political system and by the past generations which hold the power. Apparently, this means to be young: be betrayed by the past.

This collection of stories was rather uneven - some I really liked, others I did not even finish. I feel that a prior knowledge of Mishima's work helps to appreciate the specific place in time of this collection, or at least familiarity with the landscape of Japanese fiction is required. I might come back to this later, but my copy ran out before I could finish - and I am not quite sure I am going to look for a copy to complete the reading. So - more appreciated than enjoyed, maybe?

Voices of the Fallen Heroes is a collection of 14 stories by Yukio Mishima, edited by Stephen Dodd. With an introduction by John Nathan who has penned Mishima’s biography, it boasts of various translators at work. Those who have read Mishima at least once or know a little of his life would agree he is an amalgam of paradoxes. His writing combines ferocity with a certain tenderness, juxtaposes naivety with daredevilry. Even as he extols traditional Japanese values and criticizes its dilution by the Western thought, he travelled a lot to the West and hoped to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. So obsessed was he with the body, its beauty and appearance that ageing and its deterioration over time instilled the worst fear; an abrupt death in youth felt heroic and aesthetic. This obsession for bodily attributes and the realm of imagination/excitement it stirs in the onlooker features pronouncedly in his stories. Eroticism in prose shines, at times it’s veiled and at others plain/bare. The author’s fixation for the sea and islands is evident too.

Middle-aged men using a mix of time at hand and boredom for casual flings with young girls feature in stories ‘Strawberry’ (tr by Paul McCarthy) and ‘Cars’(Jeffrey Angles). There’s a brush with the supernatural in ‘Companions’ (tr by Paul McCarthy) and Tickets (tr by Juliet Winters Carpenter).‘The Dragon Flute’(tr by Sam Bett), the last story written by Mishima, is fleshed out from his experiences of training Tatenokai cadets.

The use of metaphor is stunning, especially in ‘The Flower Hat’ (tr by Stephen Dodd). Here, the narrator’s casual observations while seated on a bench in the Union Square in San Francisco on a Sep afternoon assume political hues, yielding a portrait of the post WWII world, one that he equates to a cracked glass container, uneasy and fragile. The immaculate attention to detail stumps us readers in the story Peacocks (tr by Juliet Winters Carpenter), the beauty of the bird is described with flamboyance and there is a dance of macabre when detailing its slaughter/death. The titular story is a masterpiece, a strongly political piece. The introduction, better reserved for the end, helps the reader check his/her understanding of some of the stories here.

Each story in this collection written by Mishima in the last decade of his short life is more than a sum of just plot, characters and themes. It is extremely telling of the author's perspective, beliefs, obsession and fears. Every story here presents a little of Mishima in flesh and blood. Fabulous collection!

Rating - 4.5 stars

'I'm speaking of the vast wilderness surrounding the metropolis of my being. Unmistakably it's a part of me, but it is an unexplored, barren area that doesn't appear on my map. It is a region of desolation as far as the eye can see, no verdant trees or flowering plants, only a biting wind that dusts the top of jutting rocks with sand and then blows it away'

Mishima was, without a doubt, one of the most extraordinary literary figures of the 2oth century, and this new collection brings together fourteen short stories written in the 1960s. With his death in 1970, these represent a final frenzy of output, and for anyone familiar with his work they will come as no surprise in terms of their themes: beauty and decay, death, tradition (often with motifs drawn from Noh plays), nationalism and history. Two stories in particular - the titular 'Voices of the Fallen Heroes' and 'The Dragon Flute' - with their militaristic themes mean that the shadow of Mishima's death, and his whole world order, looms large over the book.

But there is so much more: strange obsessions, murder, beauty. Many of the stories take place near to the sea, another recurring motif in Mishima's works, and that just adds to the many levels of experience in these stories. The various translators do a remarkable job in capturing Mishima's style and motifs.

Perhaps because these are later works, new readers to Mishima may be put off, so some of his earlier work may be a better starting point. But each of these stories, and the collection itself, deserves to be read by anyone interested in this extraordinary writer. Uncomfortable at times it may be, these obsessions with beauty, death and decay, but the prose is sublime, lyrical and haunting. Mishima cuts to the very essence of the human soul and lays bare our darkest thoughts. In 'True Love at Dawn' a man is asked why he murdered a married couple:

'Because they were beautiful and real. That's it. That's why. I didn't have a single other reason to kill them.'

5 stars for definite.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

Like with most short story collections, I liked some stories in 'Voices of the Fallen Heroes' more than others.
This is not a collection I'd recommend to people unfamiliar with Mishima's work, this is not the one they should start with in my opinion.
'Voices of the Fallen Heroes' contains short stories from the final decade of Mishima's career. Each one had a different translator.
Most of the stories read like unfinished works of his, but they had that distinct Mishima voice - they were sensitive, morbid and disturbing.

Huge thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Beautiful selection of short stories, but I don't feel like this was his best work or the author at the top of his game.
Still hoping they might find a diamond in his left-over writings.

Like most collections of short stories I was expecting these to be a mixed bag. I do like Mishima, especially Spring Snow and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea but I was disappointed by this collection. Most of the stories didn't really have a proper conclusion and seemed more like works in prgress than completed works ready tfor publication. i think this collection is one for the super fans and completists.

Mishima: a review in two chapters

Part One

If Yuko Mishima is the poet of something, then he’s the poet of a queasy, unsettling feeling that pervades these twenty-odd short stories. They’re almost all set in contemporary Japan, and are firmly grounded in a realistic and secular style that Mishima’s more well-known novels sometimes eschew in favour of the period setting, the fable and the spiritual. Where does this quesiness spring from? Closeted sexuality is one source - as in the story that features an adolescent girl and her divorced father. The intensity of her feelings for him and her physical resemblance to her mother combine to unsettling effect. A much older man strikes up a relationship with a girl as they wait for the results of driving tests.Two middle-aged lovers keep themselves forever young by sleeping with their teenage dopple-gangers.

The threat of violence is another - a man obsessed by peacocks (such a Mishima animal) becomes a target of police enquiries after the birds are slaughtered at a local zoo. A voyeuristic nobleman meets a violent end after taunting a learning disabled child. If there’s a quintessential Mishima theme it involves dysfunctional sexual desire and bloody violence. Beneath the ordered surface of contemporary Japan: all modern conveniences, cars and cigarettes, lurk darker and more animalistic desires.

Part Two
Was ever an author’s biography and image so enmeshed with his work as Mishima - or perhaps as true to say no writer so carefully cultivated and self-mythologised his own image through his life and writing. Mishima was a reactionary and a far-right ideologue who extolled the martial and spiritual virtues of traditional Japan. Much the longest story in this collection - presented as a true incident - rehashes these views. A framing device of a traditional ceremony in which the gods inhabit the body of a priest sees two groups of totemic figures from Japan’s military past summoned: a group of young army officers who were executed after an attempted coup, and the Second World War kamikaze pilots. Only those with a very large appetite for extended discussions around whether the Emperor was betrayed, or he betrayed himself, or he was a god, or a man, will stick with this.

So stick with the stories - they’re a strong four, but this reader would counsel you to not feel bad about skipping through the title 'story.' On that basis four stars.

I went into this collection with high expectations as I have heard nothing but praise for Mishima. However, the few stories I read lacked depth. The first story, Strawberry, was disappointing. It seemed there was no plot, and it ended rather abruptly. I DNF, however I can’t deny Mishima’s masterful way of writing, and I see how he is revered for his prose.

Mishima was such a talented writer. Such a beautiful book and so poetic. Loved it a lot and want to read more.

This is a collection of late Mishima stories that show the breadth of his work and interests. It may not be a good starting point for someone new to Mishima, however, as none of them matched the breathtaking delicacy and brutality of [book:Patriotism|7420324] for me.

There are stories here that showcase the author's nationalist patriotism and the 'betrayal' of Emperor Hirohito. There are haunting ghost stories, and gothic-esque soul divisions where something unknown and almost unacknowledged emanates from the narrator. A striking tale set in America foregrounds a moment when the world stops in a fiery blast of annihilation, characterised here as a profound instance of complete and coherent human understanding as humanity is united in death.

There is something so distinctive about Mishima's vision, that disturbing aesthetic of morbidity and sensitivity.

Not sure if my expectations were just shot toward a completely opposite direction, or if this was just sort of disappointing somehow - on different levels - stylistically lacking, narrative and plot-wise sort of undercooked, and nothing really hits? But it's Mishima, and because of that, I'm still a little bit biased. Would rather read Mishima than a mid, mediocre new debut work of someone new. Maybe that's more my problem than Mishima's then. All in all reminded me of my least favourite work of his, "Beautiful Star", esp. in terms of style and structure, and tone too perhaps. Might reduce it to a two star rating later. Really didn't get anything out of it. Stories were too brief, and mostly without substance. And the style wasn't interesting enough either. It's as if the only reason this could be published or marketed is because Mishima wrote it.

A variety of fiction and real-life stories written in different POVs, styles and genres.
The Peacocks, From the Wilderness and the titular story were my favourites.
I enjoyed the plots and the styles of some more, and overall this was a 3-star read for me.

Mishima is one of my favorite authors and one whose short stories I also tolerate, which is the genre I detest the most along with YA. That said, in my opinion, except for a few, there are some pretty forgettable short stories in this collection, as already mentioned though with exceptions. The themes are the usual ones anyway, death, sex, honor etc. The translator is different for each story, but as not being able to read the original myself, I can only assume it works because it sounds good.

Mishima é uno dei miei autori preferiti ed uno dei quali tollero anche i racconti, che sono il genere che detesto di piú assieme al YA. Detto questo, secondo me, tranne alcuni, ci sono dei racconti piuttosto dimenticabili in questa raccolta, come giá detto peró con delle eccezioni. I temi sono i soliti comunque, morte, sesso, onore etc.Il traduttore é diverso per ogni racconto, ma come al solito, non potendo io leggere l'originale, non posso che dare per scontato che funzioni, perché suona bene.

I received a digital advanced review copy from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.