For a 30-year-old man to write about a young girl is not unusual, but for this same man to write with such piercing insight into the tumultuous mind of a female adolescent is nothing less than unforgettable. "Schoolgirl" was originally written in 1939 by Osamu Dazai, a Japanese author known for his own emotional struggles, and most recently translated by Allison Markin Powell.
Dazai leads us step-by-step through one day in his young protagonist's life, slipping in details when we are least likely to be paying attention. His narrator chides herself for exclaiming like an older woman, but shortly after displays the introspection of someone twice her age.
Like any girl, she enjoys a secret, and she takes no small pleasure in the slightest deception. "You couldn't see this embroidery when I put on the rest of my clothes. No one knew it was there. How brilliant." She is at once confident and filled with self-loathing, but never dwells too much on one sentiment or the other.
She longs for someone older to shepherd her through life, and laments her relationship with her family, her perceived physical shortcomings, and even all of her own contradictory feelings. "Schoolgirl" is a shining example of how the inherent awkwardness of being a young girl transcends geography, time, and -- in the hands of a talent like Dazai -- gender.
