Forbidden Colors

Rating:
Summary: A feel-good story for pessimists
Review: This is one of Mishima's more subdued novels. Although his trademark ideas about death, beauty and glory are present, it is more concerned with psychological study, and the view it takes is extremely bleak. He does an amazing job of portraying the shallowness and hypocrisy of a wide variety of people, from the pretentious and embittered author (who seems more than somewhat autobiographical) to the foppish members of the Japanese homosexual underground, and the flightly and neurotic women who are ruined (deservedly, you often feel) by the author's schemes. If that sort of thing depresses you, you're better off looking elsewhere. I enjoyed it, and sometimes found it very funny, but I would complain that the story seems to drag a little. These characters can't carry such a long story, since they are trapped by their vices and only become more and more pathetic. I would have been happy if it were about a hundred pages shorter. Also, I wouldn't look here for any profound insight into the nature of homosexuality; I don't think Mishima was really concerned with that, here or elsewhere. Homosexuality is a device used to expose flaws in society.