Introduction In No Longer Human , the first-person narrator, Yozo, traces his development and experiences from childhood through his twenty-seventh year. Using the device of a journal kept by the narrator which has been recovered and is being read by someone else, the author has made this book a revelation of his innermost self and a confession of his increasing alienation from society. In fact, the book is highly autobiographical and belongs to the “I novel” genre, a style popular in Japan (Ueda, 1976: 105-113). Yozo learns very early as a child that he is apparently quite different from the people around him, and he consequently fears these people. Yet he wants to be accepted, so by constantly playing the role of the clown, he makes himself popular. He observes in general that people live in mutual distrust and are insincere. On the way home from a political rally sponsored by his father, he overhears family friends saying how idiotic the meeting was; these same friends then congratulate his father on a “wonderful meeting” (Lyons, 1985; 47-55). Main body After going away to high school, Yozo learns that his clowning and posturing are easier now that he is away from family. He discovers that he loves painting and wants to make it his profession. His art parallels his public and private selves: He paints standard “pretty pictures” for others to see and odd self-portraits, which he calls “ghost pictures,” for his private amusement. While in high school, he also discovers that he gets along better with women and finds them easier to clown for, even though he finds them rather difficult to understand (Ueda, 1976: 105-113). Although Yozo wants to go to art school, his father makes him go to college. There, Yozo meets Hiroki, who introduces him to the world of drinking, smoking, and prostitution. Yozo finds Horiki’s “friendship” necessary because he is afraid to get around Tokyo on his own, and Hiroki consequently becomes a crutch, for he is very accomplished in all the skills needed to survive in a big city. Yozo also begins attending student Communist meetings while in college, but he has no liking for Marxist economic theory. He merely prefers the personality of the Communist movement; it exists, as he does, on the margins of society (O’Brien, 1983: 63-71). After several years, he must leave the comfortable house in which he has been staying and move to a room in a lodging house. He is now on a tiny monthly dole from home and has real financial worries. He drops out of school, neglects his painting, and ceases to attend the Communist meetings. He rarely sees Horiki but spends most of his time with a succession of girlfriends and prostitutes, and he becomes a heavy drinker. He finds a waitress in a Ginza cafe who is as unhappy as he is. They both decide that there is no hope living in an upside-down society in which they are so miserable, and they attempt a double suicide which leaves the girl dead but Yozo still alive (Wolf, 1990: 124-136). The suicide attempt embarrasses his relatives, and his father forces Yozo to live with a family friend whom Yozo calls Flatfish. Yozo is quickly disgusted with Flatfish’s lack of straightforwardness and leaves. He eventually lives with Shizuko, a woman journalist, and her daughter. Flatfish reaches an agreement with the woman whereby Yozo severs all relations with his family and takes Shizuko as a common-law wife. This arrangem