This is a short book about two fourteen year olds who are badly bullied at school. A girl, Kojima and the unnamed boy narrator. It contains graphic and harrowing scenes.
It may recall “Lord of the Flies”, only in a modern urban Japanese setting.
The comparison may be appropriate, as Kawakamis’ writing raises the story far above the gratuitous and makes it worth reading. Using direct and unsparing language in description and dialogue, the conversation and relationship between Kojima and the boy narrator develops. They react to their predicament, but also explore and analyse it. This is not a conventional coming of age or romantic narrative. They are essentially trying to cope with adolescence and trauma at the same time, this is what they have in common.
The two main bullies are sketched and have different characters and possible motivations. The “ground-hog day” atmosphere of a miserable school life and a strange, almost secret, double life between school and home are depicted relentlessly.
The enclosed first person perspective is convincing and effective. You are dropped into his viewpoint. Though the very effective opening passages suggest a memory the whole quickly assumes present tense.
The conversation between Kojima and the boy touches many philosophical questions, but does not become abstract, they are finding ways to live, survive even. The two have different interpretations of what is happening to them and how they should respond, but they are looking at issues of unhappiness, loneliness, powerlessness and dilemma together.
Whether being “different” in Japanese society is worse than in a less homogenous society, in don’t know. It does not stop this story having a universal application though, nor would issues of gender, authority and age. The person who recommended this book to me referred to the issue of control. When you look at the actions of the two main characters and the two antagonists, you can see a whole range of possible interpretations, surprising and disturbing, carefully folded in, which is one of the skilled achievements of Kawakamis’ writing.
Maybe the book asks, how do we focus? This is a powerful and direct story, which avoids the mawkish and stares at issues which are often over looked. It is no surprise that Mieko Kawakami has been recognised in Japan and is being translated internationally.
Mark's Reviews 