Review: Shameful Life

" What a disaster! I've made Father angry. His revenge will be terrible, I must do something right away, and make amends before it's too late! Such were my thoughts as I lay trembling in bed that night." (page 8)

The imagination of the main character gives a major participation as one of the resources of upcoming events like the clown personality that is created from his mindset for covering his true self As Carl Gustav Jung says about one part of his theory " Jung believes that people have an identity or persona that they want to project to others( structural learning)"  and from other written by Jeff Alford.

" Although shortest in page count, the novel's first journal is its most complex, as Yozo muddles memories of his childhood with the critical, analytical mindset of his adulthood. As a child, Yozo found he could hide his emotions behind a clowning, comedic mask."

The clown description in this novel surely will attract the reader to question what kind of clown the main character will use to stay in society. This concept of a clown in this novel is not about the clown in reality, but it is just a personality that had been made by the main character to hide his true personality which also becomes the one of interesting parts of this novel where the psychological viewpoint and approach such as Sigmund Freud or Gustav Jung will be useful.

• LOOKS NATURAL FOR A FICTION

When the writer reads this book the story the first thing that appears in his mind is the story is like the real thing is documented that is given some dramatic element to make it more dramatic. The parts that made this thing look natural are not the kind of background description or the character, but the writing style of the dialogue and the story. In chapter one the story only focused on the main conflict which is the childhood of the main character with only a few descriptions about the other making the story straightforward. Then in the next chapter, the main character's story will repeat some mistake or part of the previous conflict which is like a symbol cycle of human life that will never end and leak from the author for the next conflict like in the problem in the second journal " Takeichi's prediction, that women will "fall for me (page 19)" and " one of Takeichi's predictions came true, the other did not. The one empty of honor, women would fall for me, came true (chapter 3)" The problem in the second chapter and the third chapter is related to the leaks that are well hidden and waiting for the moment when the reader recognizes it after reading the whole story this kind of elements in the writing style is the one who made it like a natural story. The dialogue is also casual for small talk as the drunk people are suitable with some scenes in the city while other dialogues give deep meaning and heavy talk, yet packaged with a light atmosphere.

" "Ready? How about tobacco?" I asked "Trag (our abbreviation for tragedy)" Horikisaid almost before I finished. "medicine?" "Powder or pills?' " injection" " trag" " really? It might just be a hormone injection" " No, trag trag. Come on, it's the needles-could anything be more tragic" "

The novel " SHAMEFUL LIFE" is one of the novels that is good at imaging the ordinary human aspects which is suitable for any era where the dark side and awkwardness of human nature are processed into a short, but meaningful book full of moral value in each dialogue and giving a massage that human life is not as simple as the human thought, a one of the wonderful short novel.