What's your idea or reaction of the novels written by Yukio Mishima?

Question

I'd appreciate both Japanese and international answerers, thanks.
Please cite his novel(s) you've read, e.g. "The Temple of the Golden Pavillon", etc. so that I'd try reading his other novels.

The Team's informed me to extend for 4 more days, thanks.

Answer 1

Yukio Mishima's fiction is, according to Yasunari Kawabata's opinion "the most perfect exemple for the Japanese soul and mode of expression"; Kawabata is the first Japonese writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and he considered Mishima the greatest of all Japonese writers. Generally, "The Temple of the Gold Pavillion" is considered his masterpiece, nevertheless he wrote several very interesting novels, such as "The Confessions of a Mask", inspired by his own life and also influenced by the japonese tradition of "no" theatre (a traditional type of performance, actors using masks, "no" meaning "acievement" or even "perfection"). Then there is another book, "After the Banquet", discussing the problems of Japonese society after the World War II. Sometimes his prose was interpreted in direct connection to his suicide as a response to the decline he felt was general and overwhelming in post-war Japan. He is a great writer and some European critics tried to make a connection between his manner of writing and the tradition of Barroque in European culture.

Answer 2

Yukio Mishima - Pseudonym for Hiraoka Kimitake

The later books are largely autobiographical work reflected Mishima's masochistic fantasies and a preoccupation with the body, its beauty and degeneration. Mishima wished to create for himself a perfect body that age could not make ugly. He started body building in 1955 and he also became an expert in the martial arts of karate and kendo