Yukio Mishima The Temple of the Golden Pavilion Paperback Book

This is Mishimas novel about the pressure of living an idealised life. It tells a fictionalised account of real events the lonely acolyte who destroyed a famous Kyoto temple. Mizoguchi grows up a lonely boy in a poor family, a hopeless and frustrated stutterer. Only tales of the beauty of a famous temple in Kyoto, told by his dying father, sustain him. Taunted by his schoolmates, he eventually escapes to become an acolyte at the temple. But there, witness to acts of callous violence and terrified by the bombing of the war, Mizoguchi develops an allconsuming obsession with the temples preservation until the beauty of the place itself starts to feel like his deadliest enemy. This powerful story of sacrifice and unattainable ideals brings together Mishimas preoccupations with violence, desire, religion and national history to dazzling effect. One of the outstanding writers of the world New York Times | Yukio Mishima The Temple of the Golden Pavilion Paperback Book