A review by bookishwendy
Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburō Ōe

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.