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the Complete Review
the complete review - fiction



Thirst for Love

by
Mishima Yukio


general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

To purchase Thirst for Love


Title: Thirst for Love
Author: Mishima Yukio
Genre: Novel
Written: 1950 (Eng. 1969)
Length: 200 pages
Original in: Japanese
Availability: Thirst for Love - US
Thirst for Love - UK
Thirst for Love - Canada
Une soif d'amour - France
Liebesdurst - Deutschland
Sete d'amore - Italia
Sed de amor - España
from: Bookshop.org (US)
directly from:
  • Japanese title: 愛の渇き
  • Translated by Alfred H. Marks
  • Thirst for Love was made into a movie in 1966, directed by Kurahara Koreyoshi and starring Asaoka Ruriko

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Our Assessment:

B+ : solid little -- and enjoyably melodramatic -- character-study

See our review for fuller assessment.



Review Summaries
Source Rating Date Reviewer
Hudson Review . Winter/1969-70 Roger Sale
Sunday Times A 31/5/1970 John Whitley
The Times . 27/6/1970 David Williams
VQR . Winter/1970 .


  From the Reviews:
  • "Mishima does the kind of thing Peter Taylor does, and almost always does it better (.....) Mishima's genius is to be able to register the pain of knowing that for some life is much easier than it is for others while also exploring the strange psyche of one who feels not the slightest rancor about this just imbalance. It is not a great work" - Roger Sale, Hudson Review

  • "All this is splendidly written, in a style which drives the eye across the page (.....) (T)he real achievement, which reflects in this early novel (1950) the brilliance of Mishima's Forbidden Colours, is the way in which he establishes and sustains credibility in Etsuko herself . (...) Mishima's dispassionate style, brilliant characterisation and his sheer compelling wizardry make her, unreliable witness though she is, into an authentic voice. It is a magnificent tour de force, and a stunning portrayal of the horrors of the lonely mind." - John Whitley, Sunday Times

  • "You are reminded of the Lady Chatterley-Mellors situation, and in the treatment, too, there are quite powerful Lawrentian intimations -- especially during the magnificent description of the orgiastic dancing at the autumn festival. But these happenings are all ten thousand miles away from Eastwood, Notts, and acted out by characters of whose modes of thought and action it is difficult for the western reader to have that immediate intuitive understanding which in literature can only come from the sense of a shared culture. This is not to deny for a moment the brooding, hypnotic intensity of this book." - David Williams, The Times

  • "Compared with the flabby output of most British and American novelists, this is lean, flavorsome meat. The character of Etsuko is drawn with marvelous clarity, but it does not overwhelm the plot. " - Virginia Quarterly Review

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       Set soon after the end of the Second World War, Thirst for Love finds young Etsuko widowed and living with her in-laws in Maidemmura, in the outskirts of Osaka. Yes: "In a strict sense it was not rural at all", but the Sugimoto property -- bought by patriarch Yakichi -- is basically a large farm. Etsuko, used to Tokyo, finds even Osaka a backwater, so she is at quite loss here; she complains: "It's just too quiet, quieter than I like it" -- but that's only a small part of it.
       Etsuko was married to Ryosuke, the middle son. He had been having an affair before his death -- and then died horribly and quickly, from typhoid. Etsuko entertained the thought of joining him in death, but carried on; the loss disrupted her life but was also something she could briefly revel in: "How alike they were -- her honeymoon and her husband's death -- those two short periods of joy !" But life now is a drag, with Yakichi -- himself a widower -- taking Etsuko as his lover, something she resignedly goes along with. She lives a kind of double-life here -- even keeping a 'false diary' --, keeping up appearances, after a fashion (though only fooling the others so much), while her tortured soul bubbles underneath.
       The household also includes Asako, wife of youngest son Yusuke, who is apparently still a prisoner of war in Siberia; she lives here with her two young children. There's also the eldest son, the "languid dilettante", Kensuke, a: "literary youth gone to seed", who lives here with his wife, Chieko.
       This "erudite couple" -- Kensuke can read Greek and some Latin, and could, for example, "recite the long names of all the characters in a great number of Russian novels" -- stands in distinct contrast to Etsuko, who is all passion and feeling. Etsuko laughs at Kensuke's "cerebral incontinence" -- and finds:

The real absurdity, though, is that what he is saying is so out of tempo with all the shouting, all the excitement, all the smells, all the activity, all the life around him here. If he were a musician, no conductor would have him in bis orchestra. But what can you do with a country orchestra except recognize it’s out of tune and make do ?
       It's not just Kensuke, however, as Etsuko really is the odd (wo)man out:
Yakichi is chattering, Kensuke is chattering, Chieko is chattering -- how useless words are ! What petty craft, what futility ! What diddling, bustling, everlasting-stretching-with-all-one's-might-for-something, meaningless activity !
       What Etsuko seeks is something entirely different: "the shout of a man who refuses to stoop to this chatter, the shout of a simple spirit that knows no words". What captures her eye -- and more -- is young gardener Saburo. She can barely contain her passion for him -- carried away when she sees Saburo at a local festival, for example, he already lost in the frenzy of one of the festival-rituals. She can't help herself, drawn to him, even reaching out and touching him -- but even beyond her own loss of control there are greater forces here that push her even further:
She savored the touch of his flesh. She savored the majestic warmth of him.
     The mob behind her pushed again, causing her fingernails to gouge into Saburo's back. He did not even feel it. In all the mad pushing and shoving he had no idea what woman was pressing against his back. Etsuko felt his blood dripping between her fingers.
       The dense Saburo remains basically clueless, even as pretty much everyone in the household sees how obsessed Etsuko is. Saburo even manages to knock up one of the maids, yet another complication throwing Etsuko's desires and feelings into even more confusion.
       The novel builds up to a final rendezvous -- Etsuko throwing herself at Saburo, and Yakichi coming onto the scene. Things do not go well -- and Yakichi realizes that, as he tells her: "You're a terrifying woman".
       There's quite a bit of melodrama here, and Mishima also shows a surprisingly comic touch, especially in the characters Kensuke and Chieko, but above all Thirst for Love is a psychological study of Etsuko, and quite impressive as that. She is completely out of place in this environment -- as part of this family; in the backwater that is Maidemmura -- but beyond that also finds her needs and wants are ones practically impossible to satisfy in the circumstances she has been thrown into (not that things were going too great with Ryosuke when he was, and then wasn't, around, either). Saburo is almost ridiculously inadequate for her purposes as well -- and comically and comprehensively obtuse --, as is all beautifully illustrated in the sequence of events unfolding when Etsuko gives him ... some socks.
       If somewhat rough around some of its edges, Thirst for Love already displays much of Mishima's impressive talents. It's not entirely successful, but there's enough to it that it is well worthwhile.

- M.A.Orthofer, 5 June 2026

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Links:

Thirst for Love: Reviews: Thirst for Love - the movie: Mishima Yukio: Books by Mishima Yukio under review: Books about Mishima Yukio under review: Other books of interest under review:

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About the Author:

       Japanese author Mishima Yukio (三島由紀夫) lived 1925 to 1970.

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© 2026 the complete review

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