Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara

I don't know much about Japanese culture – especially the youth culture – but what I have read in other novels like Murikami and conversations I have had with people who have lived there. None of these prepared me for Snakes and Earrings. This is a novella written by Hitomi Kanehara in 2003 and it won the Akutagawa Prize, the Japanese literary prize, in that year. It was translated by David Karahima a few years ago and has since been made into a movie – I've watched some of it on You Tube.

It is hard to write about this book. As I said I don't know much about the Japanese lifestyle. We all know about geisha and Japanese food, bowing and tea ceremonies. But I think it is a very oppressive culture in many ways. There is an honourable way to act and a facade to put on in most situations. A friend told me that the Japanese don't teach their children history at school. The fact that teenagers rebel in such bizarre ways doesn't surprise me much. I have seen pictures of Japanese kids who dress up as a lifestyle – Barbie Girls and Gothic Lolitas. So, maybe, although this book is fiction it is based in real life. I don't think the sex and violence in this book is gratuitous – I think is is just indicative of a real problem that is happening in this small country which is losing its traditions to drugs, alcohol and violence. Sound familiar?

As for the writing – well, it is immature at times but so what. Maybe it loses something in the translation, as they say. But it definitely paints a picture that will stay with me for a long time. The story hits a chord and packs a punch. There is something special in the way the Hitomi takes the focus off of the alcoholism of the main protagonist until it is almost too late for her. All of the self mutilations, the tattoos and the violent sex are just a diversion from the fact that this little girl's life is falling apart and she has no where to go but into deeper trouble or into death.

This isn't a masterpiece by any sense of the word. This is a book that tells us a story about culture and loss of identity. It makes me want to know more about these characters. It isn't for everyone and most people I know will be put off by the incidentals. I don't mean that as a lessening of the horror of killing and violent sex, but that is not what this story is about. Like I said, it is a deeper portrayal of the huge cracks in a society and how it is the youth of that society that are falling into them.