Yukio Mishima"s The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea is a book that always makes an impression on students, from the unsettling scenario presented in its opening chapter, through to the dark irony of its closing line, via several shocking and disturbing scenes, most notably one that cat lovers should avoid. The strange, detached beauty and elegance of Mishima"s prose accentuates the brutality and pessimism of...