I don’t know how to really feel about this book. It started out very interesting with Hanio attempting suicide and then choosing to sell his life to others. I honestly thought as the book went on that it was all a dream. As things happen it gets more and more surreal. The ending also left me wondering about what really happened. I felt as if there was no conclusion, it just ends. Definitely an interesting story that kept me reading but the ending left me disappointed.

This was a fantastic selection for my book club. It was divisive and yielded some intense discussion around the authors misogyny and contextualizing it with when the book was written. Ultimately, it's a book I would recommend with caution. The idea for the plot is a fantastically intriguing one but ultimately felt overdone in execution. I would say it's better to be read in the context of the era it was written and consider the impact it might have had on more recent works. Not exactly a timeless classic but potentially an important one nonetheless.

This was a good suspenseful story and a cynical look at society too.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I admit in my joy at joining NetGalley I may have been overzealous in my requesting numbers. As this book has already been published, I am choosing to work on the current upcoming publish date books in my que. As I complete those I will work on my backlogged request and will provide a review at that time. I again send my sincere thanks and apologies.

This is an extravagant, quirky, absurd one-off for Mishima, and reads as the goofy lark it was meant to be. Some events and throwaway lines reflect themes addressed by Mishima in other, grander works, but this book is a real outlier. It's fun enough, but not as an introduction to, or even very helpful sampler of, Mishima's other books.

Thanks NetGalley for the preview!

I really did not love how women were written in this book. I do not think this is my genre or type of book. I had a hard time relating to the characters or the emotions.

An odd and unforgettable gem rediscovered and given to an English audience.

Hints of the Mishima we all know lay throughout, but with more humor and a sly wit that was overshadowed by the philosophy of some of his later work.

For Mishima fans, noir fans, and anyone up for a trip somewhere different from your average read.

Complex characters and cynical storytelling make this seeming macabre story of suicide and selling one's life in classified ads a very interesting book to read. It seems once Hanio stopped caring whether he lived or not, his live got much more interesting.

I really enjoyed "Life for Sale" by Yukio Mishima. If you are a fan of Murakami or other similar writers you will love this fast moving, funny, curious novel, written in 1968 about two years before Mishima killed himself. I have only read one short story by Mishima before this and I am looking forward to reading other things by Mishima. I highly recommend this book.

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Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima (translated by Stephen Dodd) is a novel about a Japanese man who decided to sell his life, allowing someone to with his life what they will. Yukio Mishima is a well-known Japanese author, who passed away in 1970.

Hanio Yamada sees no future for himself, so he puts an ad in the paper offering his life for sale. In his quest to be killed Hanio meets many shadowy characters, gets involved with underground organizations, a vampire woman, but somehow manages to make a lot of money while at it.

This is a fun, campy, cheesy, yet entertaining book which follows an unreliable narrator in his quest to sell his life. The protagonist of Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima, Hanio Yamada, is unhappy with his successful, but boring and mediocre life and decides to die by selling his life.

Once Hanio stopped caring, his life gets immensely better. He meets beautiful woman, almost gets married, almost gets a family, have money thrown at him, and is admired by criminals for his nerves of steel.

This short novel has a preoccupation with death, and how to honorably achieve this goal. The fascination with suicide and its morality is a theme in this book which cannot go unnoticed. The author does not tiptoe around the subject, but has Hanio straight out discuss the issue.

The protagonist, once thinking that his life has no meaning, realizes that many people want to buy it. His preoccupation with death, honor, being a warrior in his own mind, and of course – the sword – is an attitude which is both foreign yet familiar.

What Hanio didn’t bargain for is that the stream of visitors to his apartment, want him to do something dangerous in order to die. It’s not a bunch of psychopaths who want to kill someone, but people with an agenda who would like someone else to take on the risk.
Hanio, of course, doesn’t mind.

This book, which begins with the meaningless of a life lived in boredom, ends up with a reflection on the absurdity of it. Hanio is no hero, he consistently mocks himself and those around him, who are absurd pulp fiction / magna characters as much as he is.

Throughout the book one gets the impression that Hanio is an unreliable narrator. We never know if he’s making it all up, telling the truth, half-truth, or is simply insane. The ending leaves it all up in the air, Hanio, in a state of paranoia, lets the readers make up their own mind.

Though written in 1968, this newest translation was really a treat. In the style of writers of this generation, and especially reminiscent of writers like Hemingway (I thought), the book includes succinct description, male perspective, and a definite appreciation of women. The book itself is episodic, going from distinct but connected plot elements, each resolving somewhat before moving to the next. Hanio is living a kind of comedy of errors as each attempt at selling his life fails, and he eventually has a change of heart. Add in a bit of secret organization mob behavior, and you have yourself a fairly entertaining tale. There are also definite allusions to Japanese government operations and societal expectations, which makes sense after reading more about Mishima and his involvement with his own government and attempts at a revolution.

Though not generally in the writing style I've come to enjoy, I can see where this author laid a foundation for writers like Murakami and was likely very important to the cannon of Japanese authors. To me, he could have very well been the Hemingway of Japan with a twist of absurdity not far from a Thomas Pynchon type. A surprisingly refreshing read in 2020, especially being so removed from current trends and issues.

This was my first time reading a work by this author. I enjoyed it, but it took me a little while to get there.

The overall vibe of this piece felt like a cross between The Catcher in the Rye and James Bond. I know, that sounds super bizarre, but I can’t think of any other way to summarize it. There were times when I couldn’t break away, and there were also times when I couldn’t connect with the plot anymore. It just... kept going with seemingly little purpose.

This novel concluded with an extremely sudden ending. It felt kind of random, but with a purpose, and left me wanting more. Although it was sudden, I enjoyed how it all came together.

I appreciated the fact that the protagonist evolved over time, along with the plot. The female side characters felt rather flat and I kind of wish the author took the time to make them out to be more human.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this piece. A more comprehensive review will be posted closer to the release date.

(I received an ARC of the 2020 reprint of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion). This book is a trip, unfolding like the Japanese cousin of The Stranger by Camus. The protagonist wants to die, but is not very good at it, starting with a failed suicide at the beginning of the book, then just keeps rolling whatever life throws at him after he puts his life up for sale. It's a dark comedy, if you choose to think of it that way, which is also something that would apply to life.

Strange Japanese fiction reminds me of Murakami, but this book was written a generation before him. Maybe it is the translation style or my imagination is reductive. A man puts his life up for sale and has strange misadventures. Women, including a vampire, are not particularly depicted well in this book.

I received this book complimentary from NetGalley but all opinions are my own.
This was interesting. I liked the plot and premise. I liked the writing and characters. It was well-done.

When I saw this cover and read the description of this book, it sounded interesting.

Hanio Yamada is a 27-year-old copywriter for Tokyo Ad who, after a failed a suicide attempt, quits his job and advertises his own life for sale in a Tokyo newspaper. Yamada’s life is shaken up when he agrees to the increasingly bizarre requests of those who respond to his offer. Mobsters, sex, poisonous carrots, espionage, a vampire woman…it’s all a bit much. This is a very dark comedy, not really what I usually read. I was initially attracted to the book because I thought it would be more gangster/yakuza. This originally came out in 1968 and was a serial in Japan. I’m not sure what to make of this. It was a quick read but not at all what I was expecting and not really something that I would call enjoyable. Great cover though! I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for this review.

A dark dark novel the value of a mans life.First time in translation by a world renowned author a book that is not an easy read a book that is not an easy read but Incoudnot put it down.#netgalley#knopfdoubleday

A fascinating tale of Hanio, a man who decides to put his life up for sale after unsuccessfully attempting suicide. The premise is enough to intrigue, but also bleak enough to know that this won't necessarily be a feel good story. I loved the book and found Hanio's journey to be both exciting and thought-provoking. The characters that he meets and the situations he finds himself in are executed brilliantly. I don't often say this, but I wish it had been longer. I could definitely have spent another 150-200 pages with Hanio and his quest to decide just how much he believes his life is worth living.

This book was a bit too dark for me. It made me a hit sad at times. Especially at the beginning. As the story continues it gets better....but... Be prepared for rough moments.
Solid 4 stars!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me on ARC of this book!

4/5 stars.

Don't have any major complaints, but I hate open endings. And this book has one that is open, and while it is done better than most, just a few more paragraphs would have at least given me a confirmed ending and I would have been happier.

The cast of characters is so crazy, as some of them only have a few traits mentioned but they still manage to feel so alive. Sometimes a character would only be relevant for a chapter or two and I would still feel like I have a great general idea of how that character acts and behaves. Our MC was a great voice all around, if not a wee bit on the horny side throughout the entire novel. Which granted, for a man is pretty accurate writing.

I feel like there was definitely a philosophical message that was just too advanced for my brain to comprehend. I liked the discussions on suicide and meaninglessness, but still I totally felt like there was something that was just coasting over my head.

This is a short book so I don't have too much to say without spoiling, but I did enjoy it regardless of the open ending. And it made me want to read more Mishima so I guess its a win/win.