Mishima, Yukio, 1925-1970 <br/><br/>
Acts of worship  : seven stories 
/ Yukio Mishima; translated by John Bester 
 - Tokyo  : Kodansha Internnational  , 1989 
 - xii, 205 p.  ; 22 cm. 
<br/><br/>Fountains in the rain -- Raisin bread -- Sword -- Sea and sunset -- Cigarette -- Martyrdom -- Act of worship. 
<br/><br/> This beautifully translated collection contains some Mishima's finest stories, none of them previously collected in an English edition. In the moving title story, the loyal, self-effacing housemaid of a solitary professor-poet ferrets out the secret of his lifelong sadness. Jack, in ``Raisin Bread,'' a pill-popping failed suicide at 22, his ``sole aim to become quite invisible,'' is a 1950s anti-hero who seems very contemporary. A proud youth in ``Fountains in the Rain,'' breaking up with his girlfriend, becomes captivated by a splashing fountain, which we see as a symbol of his own flamboyant egotism. ``Sword,'' a sweaty plunge into the world of college fencing, pits youth vs. age, animal pleasure vs. mental rigor, muscular prowess vs. meditative rapture. 
<br/><br/><label>ISBN: </label>9780870119378 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Geographic Terms: </label><br/>Japan----Social life and customs----Fiction
<br/><br/><label>Index Terms--Genre/Form: </label><br/>Short stories
<br/><br/><label>Dewey Class. No.: </label>FIC MIS