Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara | Japan Book Review
Went to the library today – Minato Ward here in Tokyo has an excellent library system especially where foreigners are concerned with a great selection of books that rivals even that of the Tsukuba Library. I used to have a card when I was living in Tokyo before, but that got lost somewhere in all the moving, and they were very friendly and helpful and I soon got a replacement.
I found the book Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara that upstairsforthinking mentioned commenting on a previous post. He said that it was good but didn’t quite measure up to the two Murakamis. He sure hit the kugi on the head with that one.
Weighing in at 120 pages, and at that not very dense pages, Snakes and Earrings is a pretty light book – I polished it off in a bit over an hour. A lot of Japanese books seem to be about that length, ideal as they are at that length for printing in pocket size and reading on the train to work.
The story is dark and debauched, more like Ryu Murakami than Haruki, which I think is the main reason it picked up Japan’s main literary prize – The Akutagawa Prize in 2004. Revolving around three characters – Lui (not named after Louis the Fourteenth, but rather Louis Vuitton), her boyfriend Ama and the tattoo artist and body piercer Shiba.
It is very much a novella of the surface, life lived at the surface, young people trying to find meaning in a society that takes everything at face value, where appearances are everything. And it is amazing how little they end up knowing each other (not wanting to give the plot away), how they don’t even know each others real names, nor even what they do during the day.
Nicely paced, and giving I think an insightful look at the world of Japan’s transient youth world of the freeta, I think Snakes and Earrings is well worth a read. But get it from your library. It isn’t worth reading twice.
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
elliott
nicely summed up without giving much away… my kind of review. after being in tokyo for a while i’ve grown accustomed to people being referred as “my friend” and yet when you actually meet that person in question, they turn out being as much of a friend as I am (ie. “I met a guy called Dan the other night. He seems to know a lot at cheesegraters.”)
Oct 31st, 2007
psymeg
you are more of a brie kind of friend than a cheddar…
as eaten by charlemagne!
Nov 1st, 2007
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