000			01488n a2200217 a 4500
001			044920
005			20231009192740.0
008			121120s1989----usa -------000-u-eng-u
020			_a9780870119378
082	0		_aFIC MIS
100	1		_aMishima, Yukio, 1925-1970
245	1	1	_aActs of worship _b: seven stories _c/ Yukio Mishima; translated by John Bester
260			_aTokyo _b: Kodansha Internnational _c, 1989
300			_axii, 205 p. _c; 22 cm.
505	0	0	_aFountains in the rain -- Raisin bread -- Sword -- Sea and sunset -- Cigarette -- Martyrdom -- Act of worship.
520			_aThis 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.
651		4	_aJapan _x--Social life and customs _v--Fiction
655		7	_aShort stories
700	1		_aJohn Bester
942			_cMO
999			_c250713 _d250713