Turning the Page: “No Longer Human” by Osamu Dazai

Genre: Fiction My rating: 4/5 Written in 1948 and still one of Japan's top 10 bestselling novels, Osamu Dazai's "No Longer Human" explores an individual's alienation from society. Presented in a semi-autobiographical format, the protagonist, Oba Yozo, depicts his life in three "notebooks" (chapters) covering different periods of his life: childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. Having been a sickly child, Yozo was often confined to his bed, unable to attend school or socialize with other children for months at a time. His isolation at a young age is one of several theories of why Yozo feels different from other individuals. Having "absolutely no notion of what others, even members of