Product Description

Journalist-turned-novelist Ami Sakurai is wildly popular among Japan's disaffected young girls. In Innocent World Sakurai elevates hatred to the level of art with her sheer intensity. Her heroine is a tragic figure locked in an unforgettable, self-destructive ball of rage. With compelling, often poetic prose, this is an emotionally intense and engaging novel with an extremely cathartic climax.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #238169 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Customer Reviews

A poor effort
I came across this novella after purchasing several books by Sakurai's contemporary, Haruki Murakami. In fact, Amazon recommended it for fans of Murakami's dreamy and nebulous prose. Unfortunately, this offering not only pales in comparison but is a crass and pointless exercise in titillation by numbers.

Challenging
This nihilistic novella is quite brutal in the themes it explores: incest, rape, prostitution, violence & redemption. These themes are increasingly common for the teenage girls in Japan today & Sakurai has bravely tried to address these issues. This novella is more in tune with Ryu Murakami (Transparent Blue) & Hitomi Kanehara (Snakes & Earrings) rather than the "Magical Realism" of Haruki Murakami. It is intense, challenging & not for the faint hearted or intellectually bereft.

Not for the faint-hearted or intellectually bereft
Having just put this novella down I had to concur with the first reviewer. In this world it seems acceptable to portray disturbed individuals and depraved situations as long as they are dressed-up as 'art'. This book can be described as 'challenging', 'controversial' or with many other polysyllabic words one could pluck out of the air. The publication of this kind of dross will please those with warped minds, those seeking some 'harmless' titillation after a week stacking shelves and those people that use words like 'bereft' in the hope that this will make them appear cleverer than they are. Enjoy (or not).