Osamu Dazai is one of the most famous--and infamous--writers of
20th-century Japan. A Shameful Life (Ningen Shikkaku) is his final
published work and has become a bestselling classic for its depiction of
the tortured struggle of a young man to survive in a world that he
cannot comprehend. Paralleling the life and death of Dazai himself, the
delicate weaving of fact and fiction remorselessly documents via
journals the life of Yozo, a university student who spends his time in
increasing isolation and debauchery. His doomed love affairs, suicide
attempts, and constant fear of revealing his true self haunt the pages
of the book and reveal a slow descent into madness. This dark tale
nevertheless conveys something authentic about the human heart and its
inability to find its true bearing.