Sunday book pick: Abuse and desire go hand in hand in Yukio Mishima’s 1950 novel ‘Thirst For Love’

“If it weren’t for love, people would get along fine. If it weren’t for love…”

Yukio Mishima’s Thirst for Love is scandalous for all the right reasons. Written with startling clarity about a woman obsessed with a young man, Mishima forces the skewed power and politics of sex in Japanese homes to let itself be known. The novel almost seems to smirk at Japan’s socio-cultural traditions – comically stoic and punishingly refined – while animal emotions leap under its surface.

Loving in secret

Following the death of her philandering husband, Etsuko gives up city life and moves into her father-in-law’s home to live with her dead husband’s family. Even in his absence, she is bound to him – she must honour the chastity of widowhood and uphold the family’s good name as the eldest daughter-in-law. Away from all kinds of excitement, Etsuko experiences crushing loneliness – which is worsened by her lecherous father-in-law making advances on her. Hatred and disgust for the old man lead her to something even more sinister: Etsuko becomes infatuated with Saburo, an 18-year-old servant boy.

She takes to caring for him, going to great lengths to keep her affection a secret, without realising that neither Saburo nor anyone else at home suspects her of being up...

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