["After the Banquet"] bears the unmistakable Mishima stamp in its flawless construction, its delicious evocation of atmosphere. Like so much of modern Japanese literature, however, it is essentially an indoor type of writing—fragile, sensitive, intelligent, but somehow lacking the full-blooded vigor, the loamy richness of the greatest western masters….

There is no question that as a novel "After the Banquet" is always fascinating and frequently brilliant. The author's intent is clear—to convey what the dust jacket calls his heroine's "blazing vitality." The celadon fineness of Mishima's writing, however, gets in the way of his intent, as if an artist who excelled in watercolors and line drawings had decided to experiment in oils.

Takashi Oka, "Novels from India and Japan: 'After the Banquet'," in The Christian Science Monitor (reprinted by permission from The Christian Science Monitor; © 1963 The Christian Science Publishing Society; all rights reserved), February 14, 1963, p. 11.