There was more than a touch of Haruki Murakami about Osamu Dazai’s “No Longer Human”. Indeed, I ended up wondering how much better a book it might have been had Murakami tackled the narrative. This was because I was never entirely comfortable with my understanding of what was going on – indeed at one point I was reminded of Ishiguro’s “Klara and the Sun”… Was there something ‘AI’ going on? Indeed, did AI ‘write’ it – which would make the title more than ironic…
My edition was also a little odd – and a little off-putting – in that the text was printed entirely in bold font. A little difficult to read at times.
So a summary? Interesting, but flawed. On the whole I’m glad I read it – but with reservations…
Ian Gouge - Writer 