"Mine has been a life of much shame. I can't even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being." Plagued by a maddening anxiety, the terrible disconnect between his own concept of happiness and the joy of the rest of the world, Yozo Oba plays the clown in his dissolute life, holding up a mask for those around him as he spirals ever downward, locked arm in arm with death.

Translation of Ningen shikkaku vol. 1-3. Reads from right to left. Original Japanese edition published by Shogakukan.