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

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.