Thirst for Love

by Yukio Mishima

Book Overview

Full of sexual torment, jealousy, and impossible-to-resolve longing, this novel from "one of the outstanding writers of the world" (The New York Times) presents a riveting portrait of the corrosive power of frustrated desire.

The protaganist is Etsuko, a young widow whose philandering husband died horribly from typhoid. After moving into the house of her father-in-law, her misery deepens as she numbly submits to the old man's...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375705074
• ISBN13: 9780375705076
• Release Date: February 1999
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Desirous

Although this is not one of the best novels of Mishima, I think is quite a good book. The author denudes one of the most painful realities of human condition, the unattainment of love. All the characters are frustrated in their thirst for love, nobody is loved by their beloveds and the weak one has the worst part. Also on this novel (the passage of the night party)you can find one of the most erotic writings in literature. This is a good book about desire and its wicked ways.

thirst for love

the guy below doesnt know what he is talking about, he didnt understand anything

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Mishima is a fascinating and intoxicating author to me, but I felt a little disappointed with Thirst for Love after having read the Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea. It seems less focused somehow; I found certain segments a bit dull and the end somewhat dissatisfying (not just because it wasn't "happy.") But, those are just the cons -- I still think this is quite a book. Etsuko's psychology is fascinating, and there are some great moments. Quality, unconventional stuff.

Haunting is a good description...

The intensity of the jealousies and frustrations simmering under the surface of this superficially simple story explodes in the last few pages in a way which is surprising and shocking enough to linger in the memory.

Restrained elegance

One of Mishima's more restrained works, "Thirst for Love" has a quiet elegance. As we follow the narrator down her lonely and doomed path, it is clear that we are in the hands of a skilled storyteller.