A review by literaryjunarin
Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
3.5
“But I wasn’t crying because I was sad. I guess I was crying because we had nowhere else to go, no choice but to go on living in this world. Crying because we had no other world to choose, and crying at everything before us, everything around us.”
I don't particularly appreciate reading about bullying but here I am. This little story is about a 14-year-old boy and his classmate Kojima who are both the target of violent bullies. And when I say violent, it is violent with blood and all the like. It was a difficult read.
The conflicting ideas of the characters were interesting. Kojima believes that all the pain and suffering she's going through has meaning. She continues to behave in a way that draws scorn and bullying because she believes that she will be rewarded in the end, while the narrator is just passive through all that. He doesn't fight back or report them to teachers and just quietly cleans himself up after getting beaten. He contemplates why people bully the weak but can't find the answer. I think the nihilistic views of the bully are not believable though. He doesn't sound fourteen. Don't people their age bully because they think it's cool and do it because they can?
While I loved reading a study of human nature, there's not much to dig into here. It was not as profound as I thought it would be.
And I must say because I can't ignore it, what's with the graphic description of snot and sweat?
I don't particularly appreciate reading about bullying but here I am. This little story is about a 14-year-old boy and his classmate Kojima who are both the target of violent bullies. And when I say violent, it is violent with blood and all the like. It was a difficult read.
The conflicting ideas of the characters were interesting. Kojima believes that all the pain and suffering she's going through has meaning. She continues to behave in a way that draws scorn and bullying because she believes that she will be rewarded in the end, while the narrator is just passive through all that. He doesn't fight back or report them to teachers and just quietly cleans himself up after getting beaten. He contemplates why people bully the weak but can't find the answer. I think the nihilistic views of the bully are not believable though. He doesn't sound fourteen. Don't people their age bully because they think it's cool and do it because they can?
While I loved reading a study of human nature, there's not much to dig into here. It was not as profound as I thought it would be.
And I must say because I can't ignore it, what's with the graphic description of snot and sweat?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Sexual harassment