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ratinthesun's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
5.0
I want to analyse and dissect this book page by page so bad. It's short, but it really packs a punch, and the themes are so striking - abandonment, humanity / being a beast (and tangentially, loyalty and compassion / staying alive), human connection. It's gruesome at times but in a way thats necessary to the story, especially in contrast with the romantic aspects, although I found the relationship between the narrator and his brother most striking. Overall, a really strong novel, and I really need to find the time to dissect it a little bit.
huijunhuis's review
4.0
That showed that the villagers had begun to convince themselves that the ‘incident’ was already over and had become a legend, a fable of a past natural disaster. But right now we were trying to live the ‘incident’ in the present. We would be dragged into it, our feet entangled, and would have to go on struggling.
i liked the grim setting and the atmosphere, and i can put up with a lot of sexual content, especially if the book's protagonist is a teenage boy, but was it really necessary to include so many descriptions of kids genitals?! previously, i've read only one book by oe, a personal matter, and while that one also was morally questionable and filled with explicit sexual content, at least it was about adults.
still, i'm a fan of oe's writing and his themes, so i will definitely be reading more of his work in the future.
hmcmendoza's review
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
masonanddixon's review
Don't normally write reviews here, but the ending caught me off guard. Most of this seemed a Japanese Lord of The Flies, albeit ever so slightly more hopeful and carried along by a dreamy, unreliable narrator, but the ending, that's some grade A, artfully crafted hopelessness. Yikes.
morcabre's review
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
sarah_dietrich's review against another edition
4.0
Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids was Kenzaburo Oe's debut novel. First published when he was only 23, it draws on his experiences as a child during World War II. Some aspects of the plot - a group of boys abandoned during a war & left to look after themselves - invite comparisons to Lord of the Flies, but the similarities are merely superficial. I found Buds to be far more complex, nuanced and adult - an interesting, compelling, and sometimes difficult read. I read the English translation, which is apparently not great. I must have read a different/more modern translation than the one mentioned in many of the reviews here, because many of the problems mentioned weren't present in the translation I read. The dialog was a bit stiff at times, but did not detract from my enjoyment of the book. I'm really interested to read more of Oe's work.
bookishwendy's review
3.0
Many reviewers have described [b:Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids|501635|Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids|Kenzaburō Ōe|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348225609s/501635.jpg|1128304] as being a wartime Japan version of Lord of the Flies. It was a bleak, rather difficult read. I suppose the comparison is apt, though I thought unlike Lord of the Flies, the adults here behave more barbarically than the abandoned youngsters do. Still, there's a strange undercurrent involving a range of adolescent sexual behaviors that kept me uncomfortable and off-kilter. There's very little that is cute about these kids, but they are raw and real.
maxicroissant's review against another edition
challenging
dark
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
nyzerman's review
4.0
I had a hard time getting in to it at first but once the boys were in the village, I was moved by the emotional ups and downs, and how dependent the boys were on each other for survival and companionship. The book is beautifully written - haunting, a little macabre but also poetic and vivid. I felt myself rooting for the boys and though I hoped for some redemption for them, the sorrowful tone of the book was still somehow very satisfying, I think due to the survivalist nature that main character possessed.
gkolocsar's review
3.0
Crudo relato de un grupo de adolescentes de reformatorio abandonados en un pueblo fantasma a causa de una epidemia. El Japón feudal de segunda guerra mundial