Mishima’s story that verges between fiction and non-fiction is sombre and dark. A young man inflicted with a stutter after seeing his mother make love to another man; meditations on an old koan where a kitten is killed for no clear reason; befriending a cripple that abuses women.
This book was more troubling and anxiety-inducing than enjoyable. Unexplained acts of cruelty are confusing, more confusing than the psyche of this young man that hates beauty, but isn’t sure what beauty is.