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alicegns's review against another edition
5.0
Every review I read after finishing Kenzaburō Ōe’s “Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids” mentioned how this was not the author’s best work because he wrote it at 23. Well, I have to say I’m so looking forward to reading his other novels because I thought this one was incredible.
I must admit I knew very little about the author and the book before reading it, but it was a pleasant surprise. The book is so dark it will make many cringe with every turn of the page, but the writing is so masterful you can actually sense its creator is Nobel material.
“Lord of the Flies” immediately comes to mind when reading “Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids.” Nevertheless, Ōe’s rendition of the tale of a bunch of young boys abandoned in a depopulated village in the Japanese forests during World War II is soaked in a sense of gloom and futility that is very hard to surpass.
The extreme child brutality, vivid depictions of animal cruelty, underage intercourse including homosexual encounters may overwhelm the reader at times, to the point of wanting it to end so badly. Metaphors and comparisons abound, sometimes a bit too much, but they all contribute to creating an eerie atmosphere.
“I walked howling like a beast, shedding my tears on the snow. The dirty water coming in through my cracked soles soaked my chilblained toes and made them itch terribly, but I fiercely pushed my shoes into the ankle-deep snow and made no attempt to reach down and scratch them. If I had bent down I couldn’t possibly have straightened up and started walking again.”
The feeling of immersion in the story is so poignant that you actually believe there is no other world outside the unnamed Japanese village where life has lost the will to exist, and death reigns supreme.
Fifteen teenage reformatory boys are evacuated to a remote village in the mountains during the war. The unnamed narrator and his brother are the protagonists, are the unofficial leaders of their delinquent comrades who instill disgust in local peasants. In a Camusian turn of events, a plague breaks out, and the villagers disappear in the dead of night, leaving the boys alone in an empty village together with a young Korean and a local girl who was left behind near the decomposing body of her mother.
From now on the story focuses on the way the group manages to live without any supplies in a deserted village. Horrifying moments abound in the freezing setting, and the imagery is dense, in total contrast with the simplicity and minimalism you would expect to find in a Japanese novel. Ōe was a student of Heidegger and Sartre in college, and their influence is visible in the writing, which makes the novel read very much like Western works.
The ending is a culmination of emotional brutality, and the whole story is memorable in a way that makes “Lord of the Flies” seem tame. Ōe’s book is less allegorical, which translates into a more visceral work that is not for the faint of heart.
I must admit I knew very little about the author and the book before reading it, but it was a pleasant surprise. The book is so dark it will make many cringe with every turn of the page, but the writing is so masterful you can actually sense its creator is Nobel material.
“Lord of the Flies” immediately comes to mind when reading “Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids.” Nevertheless, Ōe’s rendition of the tale of a bunch of young boys abandoned in a depopulated village in the Japanese forests during World War II is soaked in a sense of gloom and futility that is very hard to surpass.
The extreme child brutality, vivid depictions of animal cruelty, underage intercourse including homosexual encounters may overwhelm the reader at times, to the point of wanting it to end so badly. Metaphors and comparisons abound, sometimes a bit too much, but they all contribute to creating an eerie atmosphere.
“I walked howling like a beast, shedding my tears on the snow. The dirty water coming in through my cracked soles soaked my chilblained toes and made them itch terribly, but I fiercely pushed my shoes into the ankle-deep snow and made no attempt to reach down and scratch them. If I had bent down I couldn’t possibly have straightened up and started walking again.”
The feeling of immersion in the story is so poignant that you actually believe there is no other world outside the unnamed Japanese village where life has lost the will to exist, and death reigns supreme.
Fifteen teenage reformatory boys are evacuated to a remote village in the mountains during the war. The unnamed narrator and his brother are the protagonists, are the unofficial leaders of their delinquent comrades who instill disgust in local peasants. In a Camusian turn of events, a plague breaks out, and the villagers disappear in the dead of night, leaving the boys alone in an empty village together with a young Korean and a local girl who was left behind near the decomposing body of her mother.
From now on the story focuses on the way the group manages to live without any supplies in a deserted village. Horrifying moments abound in the freezing setting, and the imagery is dense, in total contrast with the simplicity and minimalism you would expect to find in a Japanese novel. Ōe was a student of Heidegger and Sartre in college, and their influence is visible in the writing, which makes the novel read very much like Western works.
The ending is a culmination of emotional brutality, and the whole story is memorable in a way that makes “Lord of the Flies” seem tame. Ōe’s book is less allegorical, which translates into a more visceral work that is not for the faint of heart.
otto_leonie's review against another edition
4.0
liked the length of the book; thought it captured a moment in time fairly well. characters were pretty believable. it just didn't really stick with me and i wasn't a huge fan of the narration.
lavitanuova's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
dukegregory's review against another edition
1.0
1.5
Well-written allegorical short novel that I don't care about, but, thank God, people that like Oe online seem to think his later stuff is superior. Unlike Thomas Mann, not everyone's debut is worth a Nobel, and I imagine this is such a case of which the Academy didn't care about this novel. Regardless, the Swedes seem to love awarding men who allegorize particular realities (Coetzee's Waiting for Barbarians as an allegory for colonialism, Camus' The Stranger as an allegory for existentialism, Golding's Lord of the Flies as a microcosm of masculine violence, now this Oe as a representation of the brutality/trauma of World War II). Boring stuff with an awful translation.
Well-written allegorical short novel that I don't care about, but, thank God, people that like Oe online seem to think his later stuff is superior. Unlike Thomas Mann, not everyone's debut is worth a Nobel, and I imagine this is such a case of which the Academy didn't care about this novel. Regardless, the Swedes seem to love awarding men who allegorize particular realities (Coetzee's Waiting for Barbarians as an allegory for colonialism, Camus' The Stranger as an allegory for existentialism, Golding's Lord of the Flies as a microcosm of masculine violence, now this Oe as a representation of the brutality/trauma of World War II). Boring stuff with an awful translation.
hyliansaiyan's review against another edition
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
jrosenstein's review against another edition
3.0
This book was described to me as the Japanese, Lord of the Flies though Oe's worldview is perhaps even bleaker than Golding's. During WWII a group of reformatory boys is evacuated to a remote mountain village. When a plague breaks out the villagers abandon the town and leave the boys trapped there to fend for themselves. I found most of the book to be a bit slow and oblique but the ending was brutally resonant. I also appreciated that, unlike Golding, Oe frankly acknowledges sex and sexuality as a part of the adolescent psyche.
emilykennedy's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
tonii113's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced