Reviews
I looked through more than 300 pages before buying it, but the small book size and large print… completely killed my enthusiasm, so for now it’s going on the bookshelf.
A lighthearted, entertaining novel. If you have reservations about Yukio Mishima, it might be worth giving this one a try.
The Adventures of Natsuko is my second book by Yukio Mishima, after The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Usually I look up a lot about an author before, during, and after reading a book. But The Temple of the Golden Pavilion was so shocking in its own right that I think I read it without thinking about the author at all. Then I started The Adventures of Natsuko, which begins so differently that I wondered whether it could really be by the author of The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Now and then,
This book surprised me. The title includes “adventure,” so I expected a fantasy adventure story. But the farther I read, the more fun it became. Natsuko’s many different thoughts and actions are so lively that it is hard to predict where the story will go. Yukio Mishima is recognized not only in Japan but around the world; I had heard his name before. I was amazed to learn he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times. I have not read The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, but I
“Everyone eventually finds an adventure novel they need.” — Soo-yoon Jung, translator I’ve read a few novels by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, and I often travel to Hokkaido, but this was my first time learning about The Adventures of Natsuko by Yukio Mishima, one of Japan’s leading modern novelists. After seeing the translator’s note, though, I decided I had to read it. I remembered all the adventure novels I had forgotten, one after another: childhood favorites I lost myself in, like
May 29–31, 2024 I got the chance to read a book by Yukio Mishima, author of The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, a student of Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata, and a writer nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times in a row. I have always loved Kawabata, so I was very interested in Mishima too, but his far-right politics made me reluctant to read his novels. And on top of that, Shin Kyung-sook, a Korean writer I once really liked, had plagiarized one of Mishima’s novels. It was hard
Natsuko is beautiful and comes from a wealthy family. She was raised as a sheltered only daughter and may seem like a naive young woman who knows little about the world, but once she makes up her mind, nothing can sway her. One day at the dinner table, a single thing she says leaves her parents, grandmother, and aunt stunned. Ever since childhood, Natsuko has followed through whenever she says she will do something. So when she suddenly announces that she will enter a convent, everyone is
Yukio Mishima: Natsuko's Adventures
“Haruki rewrote The Adventures of Natsuko as A Wild Sheep Chase.” — Shuji Takazawa, literary critic Yukio Mishima was a genius writer recognized in Japan and around the world. He won the Yomiuri Prize for Literature for The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times. One of his rare works centered on a woman’s story, The Adventures of Natsuko, has now been translated and published in Korea for the first time. Mishima wrote this novel at age 26. It was serialized in the weekly magazine Asahi from August through November 1951, then published as a book by Asahi Shimbun Publications that December. Set in Hokkaido, the story vividly portrays a journey as if in a film. Its outstanding prose and delicate character portraits reveal Mishima’s genius throughout. In her translator’s note, Jung Soo-yoon, who specializes in Japanese literature, points to similarities in subject and development and adds, “In Japan, people even say that Haruki Murakami’s A Wild Sheep Chase is a rewritten version of The Adventures of Natsuko.”
Korean title: 나쓰코의 모험
Korean author: 미시마 유키오
Korean publisher: 알에이치코리아
ISBN-13: 9788925574998
Reviews
I looked through more than 300 pages before buying it, but the small book size and large print… completely killed my enthusiasm, so for now it’s going on the bookshelf.
A lighthearted, entertaining novel. If you have reservations about Yukio Mishima, it might be worth giving this one a try.
The Adventures of Natsuko is my second book by Yukio Mishima, after The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Usually I look up a lot about an author before, during, and after reading a book. But The Temple of the Golden Pavilion was so shocking in its own right that I think I read it without thinking about the author at all. Then I started The Adventures of Natsuko, which begins so differently that I wondered whether it could really be by the author of The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Now and then,
This book surprised me. The title includes “adventure,” so I expected a fantasy adventure story. But the farther I read, the more fun it became. Natsuko’s many different thoughts and actions are so lively that it is hard to predict where the story will go. Yukio Mishima is recognized not only in Japan but around the world; I had heard his name before. I was amazed to learn he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times. I have not read The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, but I
“Everyone eventually finds an adventure novel they need.” — Soo-yoon Jung, translator I’ve read a few novels by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, and I often travel to Hokkaido, but this was my first time learning about The Adventures of Natsuko by Yukio Mishima, one of Japan’s leading modern novelists. After seeing the translator’s note, though, I decided I had to read it. I remembered all the adventure novels I had forgotten, one after another: childhood favorites I lost myself in, like
May 29–31, 2024 I got the chance to read a book by Yukio Mishima, author of The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, a student of Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata, and a writer nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times in a row. I have always loved Kawabata, so I was very interested in Mishima too, but his far-right politics made me reluctant to read his novels. And on top of that, Shin Kyung-sook, a Korean writer I once really liked, had plagiarized one of Mishima’s novels. It was hard
Natsuko is beautiful and comes from a wealthy family. She was raised as a sheltered only daughter and may seem like a naive young woman who knows little about the world, but once she makes up her mind, nothing can sway her. One day at the dinner table, a single thing she says leaves her parents, grandmother, and aunt stunned. Ever since childhood, Natsuko has followed through whenever she says she will do something. So when she suddenly announces that she will enter a convent, everyone is
