Product Description

This tale of sex and darkness is narrated by Lui, an alienated young Japanese woman who becomes disastrously involved with two dangerous men. Lui first meets her boyfriend Ama in a bar after finding herself mesmerised by his forked tongue. She immediately moves in with him and begins following him down the path to body modification by having her tongue pierced and planning a beautiful tattoo for her back. Ama's friend Shiba creates this exquisite tattoo and as he works on it Lui begins an illicit and brutal sexual relationship with him. Then, after a violent encounter on the back streets of Tokyo, Ama goes missing and Lui must face up to her choices...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #104595 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

International Herald Tribune
‘Kanehara is an instant star’

New York Times
‘A powerful portrait of the post-bubble generation’

Synopsis
This tale of sex and darkness is narrated by Lui, an alienated young Japanese woman who becomes disastrously involved with two dangerous men. Lui first meets her boyfriend Ama in a bar after finding herself mesmerised by his forked tongue. She immediately moves in with him and begins following him down the path to body modification by having her tongue pierced and planning a beautiful tattoo for her back. Ama's friend Shiba creates this exquisite tattoo and as he works on it Lui begins an illicit and brutal sexual relationship with him. Then, after a violent encounter on the back streets of Tokyo, Ama goes missing and Lui must face up to her choices...

Customer Reviews

Pick it up and give it a chance
I first put the book back on the shelf when I read the opening lines and found out it was about body piercings - not my thing at all.

On my second go I decided to approach it with an open mind. It is a unique novella, does not waste a word, and the first-person narrative has you empathizing with the character.
I found it to be a fascinating insight into the hippie subculture, albeit one that I myself do not identify with.

I would like to see Kanehara's next novel featuring a guy as the central character, as her two novels so far (this and Autofiction) feature women as the narrator.

good.
their only seemed to be about three locations in the whole book.
but I really love that kind of simple feel,
and it is so so so easy to follow.

my author of the week
hitomi kanehara

Really disappointed
Having fallen in love with the so called 'New Generation' Wild Child Chinese authors I've been moving over into similar Japanese literature and so was excited to find Snakes and Earrings, given the mainly good reviews I had read.

To be honest however, I was disappointed with the book. Nothing to do with the sparse style or its length, rather that the author failed to connect me with the characters. I thought the girl was ultimately quite simple and uninteresting. There was little or no explanation for her seemingly random connection to the body mod scene, though having sad that I did like her actions at the end (I won't go into more detail as to avoid being a spoiler). Perhaps their own lack of their understanding was something the author was trying to convey but I felt it came across as simply a lack of character development. The writing was not anything special in my opinion - I am an avid underliner of books and I finished it completely untouched. To be honest I think there are much better books out there that capture the underground, disaffected rebellious Asian youth scene both more effectively and more beautifully.

Its status as a new 'cult classic' is one I would have to disagree with.