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A review by therkive
Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
3.0
3.5/5
Short review: what the hell
--
What a troublingly real novel. The reader is brought into the lives of two children -- the narrator, known as Eyes -- and Kojima, known as Hazmat -- who are two middle-school kids who are bullied, as they believe, because of their lower standing in their school. The narrator, for his lazy eye, and Kojima, for her dirtiness. This bullying is relentless and ruthless, and as they both note on separate occasions, it seems as though their classmates have learned the art of physical violence without leaving behind marks.
This bullying is also the cause for the narrator's budding secret friendship with Kojima. They exchange letters in secret at school, discussing a variety of topics-from their families to nihilistic concepts of existence-but never the bullying they endure. They never exchange words at school, for fear of retribution and mockery by their bullies. As Kojima and the narrator become closer, they visit Heaven - a painting of two individuals who reached heaven after surviving the worst of traumas.
This shocks the narrator, who had, by then, convinced himself that his eye was the cause for his pain. There was no reason for his suffering - it simply was, as his bully states. His classmates felt like it, and coincidentally, he was there, in their line of vision and that was it. Unlike what he and Kojima believed, their suffering had no purpose and was occurring just because.
But, despite its short length, the book acting as a brief insight into the lives of the victims of bullying, its resolution felt clear-cut. The narrator, after his and Kojima's friendship is discovered by their bullies, chooses to be honest about his experiences at school with his step-mother, becoming another person to betray Kojima as he has his lazy eye surgically fixed. This is, in essence, my only qualm about a book about the terrifyingly sad realities of childhood and adolescence.
Kawakami uses this text write about her own experiences with bullying and discusses the philosophical musings of nihilism, citing [b:Thus Spoke Zarathustra|51893|Thus Spoke Zarathustra|Friedrich Nietzsche|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1650680683l/51893._SY75_.jpg|196327], utilizing a raw and tender portrait of the violence children endure by other children, often for no reason at all. She does not sugarcoat the violence, its brutal reality forcing the reader to confront how violent bullying truly is. Her prose is sharp; dark and effective in delivering the message that needed to be said. You do not need a plot to understand the events of the book; the conversations between the narrator and Kojima supplement their development as adolescents. It is aching as you read through the narrator's inner thoughts, watching the way his mental state deteriorates with each trigger point, adults in his life - teachers and parents - unaware and unable to adequately intervene.
Short review: what the hell
--
What a troublingly real novel. The reader is brought into the lives of two children -- the narrator, known as Eyes -- and Kojima, known as Hazmat -- who are two middle-school kids who are bullied, as they believe, because of their lower standing in their school. The narrator, for his lazy eye, and Kojima, for her dirtiness. This bullying is relentless and ruthless, and as they both note on separate occasions, it seems as though their classmates have learned the art of physical violence without leaving behind marks.
This bullying is also the cause for the narrator's budding secret friendship with Kojima. They exchange letters in secret at school, discussing a variety of topics-from their families to nihilistic concepts of existence-but never the bullying they endure. They never exchange words at school, for fear of retribution and mockery by their bullies. As Kojima and the narrator become closer, they visit Heaven - a painting of two individuals who reached heaven after surviving the worst of traumas.
Spoiler
As with bullying, the violence becomes worse and worse, and the pair continue to rely on the letters between them to cope, believing that their inaction against the violence against them, by enduring their personal suffering, will lead them to Heaven as well. They do not run away, they do not band together, and they do not stand up to their bullies. Soon, the violence peaks, and the narrator is left bloody and reaping the consequences of his wounds, having to go to the hospital for the first time in months. On a return check-up, he runs into one of his bully's friends - an indifferent bystander - attempting to confront him with Kojima's belief that his lazy eye was the cause for all his suffering. But, our narrator discovers that he and Kojima could not have been any more wrong:"Like, I know everyone laughs at you, kicks you, punches you, and I know it happens every day. You're not wrong about that part. And your eyes are messed up, so everyone calls you Eyes. That's true. But it's just a coincidence. Your eyes have nothing to do with what happens at school. [...] There's no reason it has to be you. It could have been anyone. But you happened to be there, and we happened to all be in a certain mood, so things went the way they did."
This shocks the narrator, who had, by then, convinced himself that his eye was the cause for his pain. There was no reason for his suffering - it simply was, as his bully states. His classmates felt like it, and coincidentally, he was there, in their line of vision and that was it. Unlike what he and Kojima believed, their suffering had no purpose and was occurring just because.
But, despite its short length, the book acting as a brief insight into the lives of the victims of bullying, its resolution felt clear-cut. The narrator, after his and Kojima's friendship is discovered by their bullies, chooses to be honest about his experiences at school with his step-mother, becoming another person to betray Kojima as he has his lazy eye surgically fixed. This is, in essence, my only qualm about a book about the terrifyingly sad realities of childhood and adolescence.
Kawakami uses this text write about her own experiences with bullying and discusses the philosophical musings of nihilism, citing [b:Thus Spoke Zarathustra|51893|Thus Spoke Zarathustra|Friedrich Nietzsche|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1650680683l/51893._SY75_.jpg|196327], utilizing a raw and tender portrait of the violence children endure by other children, often for no reason at all. She does not sugarcoat the violence, its brutal reality forcing the reader to confront how violent bullying truly is. Her prose is sharp; dark and effective in delivering the message that needed to be said. You do not need a plot to understand the events of the book; the conversations between the narrator and Kojima supplement their development as adolescents. It is aching as you read through the narrator's inner thoughts, watching the way his mental state deteriorates with each trigger point, adults in his life - teachers and parents - unaware and unable to adequately intervene.