A review by gloomyheart
Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0


I think I have a very conflicting, bordering on love-hate relationship with this book. Having just finished it, I wish to explore and decode the small or large points in this book that have impacted me.


To begin this review, I would like to emphasise how talented the translators are as writers. Both of them have the ability to portray agitated, confusing scenes with such ease and lightness. 

Reading many of the reviews for this book, a lot people have given it three stars because they "don't get it". Truth to be told, I can't hold this against them. The writing is beautiful, but the topics at hand are both complex and dark. Classically 'fun' reading is not the point of this book. It reveals the complex and devastating truth about bullying and teenage sadness. It is interesting to note that even the order of the book reveals a raw portrayal of life, as the first page is already a letter from Kojima asking the narrator to be his friend. Then we witnessed him being bullied and met his family. The order is messy. It is a reflection of real life. We learn things about people who are being bullied in real life in a more complicated and messy way than in a straight-line. We gradually unravel the meaning and all the little signs we see at the beginning as the bullying proceeds. It almost resembled a puzzle as it progressed. There is almost an impression that the book isn't fiction, the reader feels as if they are reading a true story. It is often the case that we do not meet a person's parents or see them being bullied when we first meet them in real life. In the beginning, we may simply observe them to be a bit awkward or with a friend. In this book, the chaos and unexpectedness that are found in everyday life are prominently depicted. 

The book also succeeds in exploring the nature of bullying. To avoid spoilers, I will not go into too much detail, but I found the way that Mieko Kawakami approached these themes to be quite striking. The book is more philosophical than entertaining in nature. 

That said, my love for this book was not pure unbiasedness as many of the scenes being portrayed hit very close to home, and Kojima in particular eerily resembled my girlfriend. 
And whilst the book depicted the horrors of bullying and sadness well, there were moments that seemed a bit unrealistic. How is it that throughout the entire book, the teachers never once noticed anorexic, depressed or bullied students? Or even the parents, they never once thought that something might be off? 
One final complaint I would like to make about this book is the fact that I found the ending quite disappointing. The book is in my opinion near perfect from a philosophical standpoint, but as a reader who is looking for entertainment, I found it to be somewhat disappointing and actually a bit flat. Although there was much anticipation for what would happen at the end, I found that it was a rather dull experience. While I understand the book's intent to reflect society and life, as a reader, I expected that there would be some excitement at the end.  


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