The Decay of the Angel (Sea of Fertility #4) Book

A strange, swift landing to the Sea of Fertility tetralogy, and a book that can't help but be altered by the fact that Mishima's strange, ritualistic suicide occurred the day after he handed it in, on the date on the last page of the mansucript. There is a lot to like in this volume, which cleverly inverts the reincarnations of Kiyoaki by questioning whether this particular rendition (a sociopathic ship watcher named Tōru Yasunaga, a character w/ virtually no inner life) is a complex imposter. The middle of the book, Toru's journal, is an interesting return to the first book, set in 1970s Japan, as the lead, Honda, battles old age. But there are shortcomings here: the book moves too fast, accepting its strangeness as a matter of course, and cutting short the intriguing push and pull between Honda and his adopted son, who have so much in common. It's almost as if Mishima himself is in dread of his aged narrator, whose gradual disintegration is treated rather grotesquely. The ending, however, is excellent: something we've waited for for 4 books...for 60 years of plot.

As an overall project, The Sea of Fertility is fascinating to consider: flawed, weird, autobiographical, ambitious. I enjoyed my journey through its lush, barren pages.