The Setting Sun: A New Translation

Juliet Winters Carpenter presents a new English translation of a modern-era Japanese classic. Osamu Dazai’s novel was originally published in 1947, only a year before the author’s suicide. The Setting Sun exemplifies the author’s “ability to channel universal feelings of anguish and alienation while presenting themes of societal decline and existential despair in a memorable and frequently humorous style”, as the translator describes.

The Setting Sun follows Kazuko, who was born into an aristocratic family. Cultural class does not guarantee economic success, however. Following Japan’s defeat in World War II, Kazuko’s noble family faces unfamiliar poverty, depression, and illness. Kazuko is divorced. She lives with her mother, who is widowed and aging into debility. Her brother returns from the military as a wayward alcoholic.

The novel explores Kazuko’s angst. Angst is a sharp emotion with an unclear source or target. Seemingly, her family has no unfair social situation—no unfortunate circumstances of birth. They are born into high society, aristocrats in a divided class system. The protagonist, approaching thirty, experiences the vicissitudes of heart and mind while dealing with a world of disillusionment and despair, from which her culture had promised a privileged safety.