Life for Sale

Life for Sale (Japanese: 命売ります, Hepburn: Inochi Urimasu) is a 1968 novel by Yukio Mishima. It was first serialised twenty-one times in the weekly magazine Weekly Playboy between 21 May 1968 and 8 October 1968. It was published in hardcover format by Shueisha on 25 December 1968. It was published in paperback by Chikuma Bunko on 24 February 1998.[3][4] The novel was translated into English by Stephen Dodd and published in paperback format in the United Kingdom by Penguin Classics on 1 August 2019.[5] The English translation received a wider release in paperback by Vintage International on 21 April 2020.[6]

Life for Sale
First edition cover (Shueisha, 1968)
AuthorYukio Mishima
Original title命売ります (Inochi Urimasu)
TranslatorStephen Dodd
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese
GenreDark comedy[1]
Satire[1]
Set inTokyo
Published21 May 1968–8 October 1968 in Weekly Playboy
PublisherShueisha
Publication date
1968
Published in English
1 August 2019
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages229[2]
OCLC54660296
895.63/5
LC ClassPL833.I7 I5

In 2018, the novel was adapted as a BS TV Tokyo television drama starring Aoi Nakamura as Hanio Yamada.[7]

Plot

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.

Publication

Life for Sale was first serialised twenty-one times in the weekly magazine Weekly Playboy between 21 May 1968 and 8 October 1968. It was published in hardcover format by Shueisha on 25 December 1968. It was published in paperback by Chikuma Bunko on 24 February 1998.[3][4] The novel was translated into English by Stephen Dodd, the Professor of Japanese Literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies,[8] and published in paperback format in the United Kingdom by Penguin Classics on 1 August 2019.[5] The English translation received a wider release in paperback by Vintage International on 21 April 2020.[6]

Reception

Translation

Publishers Weekly gave the novel a positive review, writing, "Mishima's pungent insights into the challenges of postwar Japanese life are threaded brilliantly throughout" but felt, "The novel handles its female characters poorly, using them in a disposable way that feels dated."[1]

David Barnett, writing for The Independent, called the novel "funny and horrific and curious and thoroughly entertaining and should win Mishima a new generation of fans."[9]

James Smart of The Guardian wrote, "It may be only a footnote in his career, but this surreal tale offers a trenchant critique of a city that has misplaced its soul."[10]

Writing for the Evening Standard, Ian Thomson gave the novel a rave review, calling it "a sexy, camp delight. Beneath the hard- boiled dialogue and the gangster high jinks is a familiar indictment of consumerist Japan and a romantic yearning for the past."[11]

Writing for the New Statesman, philosopher John Gray said, "Life for Sale is not a great work of fiction, but it succeeds in capturing vividly the bathos of the self-pitying modern nihilist."[12]

Andrew Taylor, writing for The Spectator, praised the novel, writing, "This existential crime novel has an arresting premise and Mishima plays it for all it's worth."[13]

Television adaptation

The novel was adapted as a BS TV Tokyo television drama in 2018, starring Aoi Nakamura as Hanio Yamada.[7]

References
  1. "Fiction Book Review: Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima, trans. from the Japanese by Stephen Dodd". Publishers Weekly. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  2. "命賣ります". CiNii. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  3. 佐藤秀明; 三島由紀夫; 井上隆史; 山中剛史 (August 2005). 決定版三島由紀夫全集. 新潮社. pp. 448–452. ISBN 978-4-10-642582-0.
  4. 佐藤秀明; 三島由紀夫; 井上隆史; 山中剛史 (August 2005). 決定版三島由紀夫全集. 新潮社. pp. 540–561. ISBN 978-4-10-642582-0.
  5. "Life for Sale". Penguin Books UK. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  6. "Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  7. "連続ドラマＪ 三島由紀夫「命売ります」". BS TV Tokyo. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  8. "Professor Stephen Dodd". SOAS University of London. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  9. Barnett, David (25 July 2019). "The life and death of Yukio Mishima: A tale of astonishing elegance and emotional brutality". The Independent. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  10. Smart, James (8 August 2019). "Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima review – a Japanese pulp classic". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  11. Thomson, Ian (1 August 2019). "Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima - review". Evening Standard. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  12. Gray, John (31 July 2019). "Yukio Mishima's dark fantasies of imperial Japan". New Statesman. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  13. Taylor, Andrew (3 August 2019). "Capers in crime: Life for Sale, by Yukio Mishima, reviewed". The Spectator. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
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