From Library Journal
Available for the first time in English, this first novel by the winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature is assured an audience both among those who are familiar with Oe's work and eagerly await the translations that will inevitably follow the awarding of the prize and those who are newly aware of Oe as a major literary figure and wish to sample the range of his work. For the latter group, this assured translation of a novel published in 1958 when Oe was a young student makes a wonderful starting point. A stark, sometimes disturbing tale of a group of young reform school youths being relocated in war-torn Japan, the simple story breathes with mythic intensity and hints at the wealth of untapped expressive power in Oe. An added bonus is a fine introduction that gives a succinct factual and theoretical overview of Oe and his work.

This is also No. 469 on the 1001 books you must read before you die list.

Bookray

Starting a bookray for this book. Please PM me if interested in joining. Bookray will remain open until last person has the book.

Participants so far:

. Danielle23 from UK (UK preferred - International if needed)
. pinkydinky from UK (EU/UK preferred - International if needed)
. katrinat from UK (EU/UK preferred - International if needed)
. JemmaJ from UK (International)
. kingfan30 from UK (EU/UK preferred)
. ETMadrid from UK (EU/UK preferred)
. mafarrimond from UK (EU/UK preferred)
. brunton11 from UK (International)
. salvami from Ireland (EU preferred - International if needed)
. ruzena from Finland (International)
. sintra from Germany (EU preferred - International if needed)
. bookguide from the Netherlands (EU preferred - International if needed)
. vedranaster from Croatia (international)<----Traveling here - 6/28/12
. KiwiinEngland from New Zealand (New Zealand/Australia preferred)
. davemurray101 from Australia (international)
. judygreeneyes from California, USA (US preferred, international if needed)
. ayntastic from California, USA (international)
. ChiBoiler from Illinois, USA (international)

Note: Order is subject to change based on shipping preferences and others joining the bookray.

How the bookray works:
* Someone will PM you for your address, PM them back and provide your address
* When you receive the book, please make a journal entry letting everyone know that you received it
* Put the book at the top of your TBR pile (under other rings/rays that arrived first)
* Read the book (take your time and enjoy the book, don't feel rushed to finish it but try to get it out to next reader within a couple of months)
* When the end is in sight, check the book's journal and PM the next person to get their address
* Finish the book, make another journal entry and let everyone know what you thought of the book
* Send the book to the next person on the list (please use the cheapest shipping method available), make release notes (Controlled Release) or journal entry to let everyone know that it's in the mail
* Last person on the ray: Please either donate the book to the 1001-library or pass it on to another bookcrosser as a RABCK, etc.

Please feel free to PM me at any time with questions


This ray is either lost in transit or stalled with bookguide who does not respond to PMs. Hopefully, it will move on in the future.

I have now replaced this book so the ray can continue. See this JE.

Very powerful short novel about the tribulations of a group of reform school young men who were relocated to a remote village during WWII. This was somewhat reminiscent of Lord of the Flies because it is about a group of boys forced to deal with circumstances on their own. "Nip the Buds" at times was really hard-hitting and graphic in its descriptions of what had to be endured by the group when the villagers desert them because of a possible outbreak of the plague. The callousness of the villagers was appalling and their treatment of the boys was despicable. This was Oe's first novel published in 1958 - he went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1994. I would be interested in reading some of his later work.

Heading out to Danielle23 in the UK to start this bookray. Enjoy!

The book has arrived safely and I can't wait to read it. I shall start this at the weekend, thanks again perryfran xx

A great book! Very reminiscent of 'The Lord of the Flies' and quite graphic in places. I found this quick to read and quite thought provoking too, (how can these people treat children this way?) It left a few open questions for me but was the better for it.

Thanks perryfran, I'll get this off to pinkydinky at the weekend xx

Off to pinkydinky, the next in line xx

Book received today. Thanks for the lovely postcard Danielle.

As others have already said, it is very reminiscent of Lord of the flies. A very stark novel that is incredibly thought provoking. At times it makes you want to cry. I also found it interesting that the only sympathetic adult character was himself an outcast of sorts.

On the way to Katrinat today.

This arrived today, I'm in the middle of a book at the moment but I'll read this straight after. Thanks for sending.

I wasn't as enthralled by this novel as the other readers have been everyone keeps comparing it to Lord of the Flies which is another novel I can't say I enjoyed., I found the constant obsession with the boys bodies a bit strange - yes, I know boys are body focuses as I teach loads of them, but it was more the way they referred to their bodies.
I did like the various relationships which were formed, and liked the way the children became a new society.
Thanks foe the opportunity to read this, i'm requesting the address ans will send it in as soon as I can.

Just a quick note to say I hadn't recieved the next readers address so I have pm'd her again today.

Posted on today

Arrived yesterday morning...already started reading it! Looking good so far!

I have almosted finished the book; so I have PMed Kingfan30 ready for their address!

Book has arrived safe and sound, just need to finish my current read and then I will start this. Thanks for sharing.

21 June 11 - I try not to read the reviews until after I have read the book. Most of the way through I kept thinking of Lord of the Flies, to find most of you that read it beforeme felt the same! I read this pretty quickly and found it pretty shocking in places. I was a bit disappointed with the ending, without giving the game away to any future reader, I found it just came to an abrupt end. Will pop it in the post tomorrow.

Off to ETMadrid

It arrived with me today - thank you!

I discovered Oe as I was in Japan in '94 and read "A Personal Matter" that I remember enjoying. I just finished this yesterday and can't say I 'enjoyed' it - I haven't yet read the copy of 'The Lord of the Flies' that Moriguen sent me so can't make that comparison. I found it pretty uncomfortable reading from start to finish. Some of this I'd say could be down to the fact that some of the phrases just don't translate all that well and so it feels a bit stilted sometimes. What is interesting, if what the introduction said is true, is that Oe was in some ways referring to the war, the wartime leadership and the atrocities committed at so many levels. I think it must be quite unique in its critique in that case, as not many Japanese dare to criticise. I found it interesting to read that he was basing the village on the village he grew up in. I am familiar with rural Japan, and was struck amongst other things by the poor dental hygiene. This book reminded me of that. It is actually not so hard to imagine the impoverished, isolated Japan that he portrays. The way that the Japanese, even today, treat the Koreans, and deny them basic citizens' rights, is also a topic within the story.

Sorry for the delay - I posted this yesterday.

The book has arrived safely and will be read shortly.

I can see the similarities with Lord of the Flies which others have mentioned however it is very different in oh so many ways -you will have to read it to see what I mean.

I did enjoy reading the book - the first I have read by Oe and can see what it was that gave him the Nobel Prize for Literacy.

I will read more by this author.

Posted onto brunton11

Arrived whilst we were on holiday. Have a couple of rays in front of this one so had better get reading! Thanks all for sharing.

After ploughing my way through 'Absalom, Absalom' this was a surprisingly quick read. I liked the style and enjoyed this book despite some of the graphic twists and turns. One of the reasons I like the 1001 list - I wouldn't have considered reading this book otherwise.

I have an address for salvami so will get this book in the post in the next few days. Thanks everyone for sharing.

Thank you brunton11 for sending the book and BC bookplates!
I never read books by Oe, I'm very much looking forward to reading this.
Thanks so much for sharing! :)

It was amazing, no wonder why he won the Nobel prize.
Although I didn't experience the wartime, as a Japanese, I can easily imagine how it was like to be in an isolated community in rural Japan. I heard that Oe rarely (or never?) uses onomatopoeia nor ideophone (we use quite lot of them to write/speak) in his works. I think this is such a novel without using them.

I see some readers mentioned "Lord of the Flies" for comparison. I haven't read the book yet, so I should check it out. Also I'd like to read Man'en gan'nen no futtobōru (The Silent Cry) by Oe as a friend of mine strongly recommended me to read.

I have ruzena's address. I will post this book next week.

had a chance to post it today! It's travelling to Finland now.
Enjoy x

Arrived! Thank you.

A great book again, and a great writer that I hadn't got to know before. (Great BookCrossing!)
Sure this can be compared with Lord of the Flies, as it is a story about adolescent persons and their survival and group dynamics in exceptional circumstances. But there are differences in the allegoric level. I find the story very thought-provoking.
I also find the text impressive, its descriptions varying from most repellent scenes to the touching portrayals of brotherly responsibility and reciprocal help and love.
This could be a good book to discuss more, e.g. because of the well-motivated characters, and because of the end.

Thanks a lot, perryfran!

-ruzena

Priority mail to Sintra.

The book is with me now and will be read soon. Thanks a lot! :-)

I agree with most of the previous comments. A very impressive and thought-provoking novel. The brief episode of liberty the boys experience in the deserted village was really touching because it's obvious that their situation is doomed to be short-lived.

Thanks for sharing this book! It will be on its way to the next reader soon.

I discovered this in my postbox this afternoon when I returned from an exhausting day of shopping with two of my children. Thank goodness I don't have to do that too often! Thank you for sending the book to me, Sintra, and thanks to Perryfran for making it a ring. It was one of the books my book group considered reading last year, and although we didn't pick this one, I've been hoping to get a chance to read it. I'll do my best to read it and pass it on within the month.

I enjoyed reading this story, despite the brutality and revolting descriptions, but it was another one of those books on the 1001 list which made me wonder why it was included. I suspect that if it had been written by somebody from the USA or UK, it wouldn't have made the cut, and likewise the fact that it has been translated into English and is very short makes it more attractive as a Japanese text to be studied, particularly as Kenzaburo Oe has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. It doesn't really give me a clear picture of a specifically Japanese book, however. Although I wouldn't go so far as to say it could have been set anywhere, it could have been set anywhere where boys have been imprisoned, starved, made to do hard labour and marched off to escape war.

When I first started reading the book, after reading the introduction and back cover, I thought the book would have more parallels to William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies', where the stranded boys become savages. In this book, however, it is the boys who organise themselves into a civilisation, and the adults who behave barbarically. Initially, the boys are cut off from society because of some misdemeanour, not only violence, but also sexual "deviation" such as homosexual behaviour. In fact, being forced together in this unnatural environment with only other boys at adolescence only encourages such liaisons. Having been rejected by society, the boys are then rejected by their parents who fail to collect them when requested to do so; these are the boys whose parents did not come when asked to do so. It is therefore not surprising that the bond between the narrator and his brother is so strong, as the younger boy has been the only one to continually support him. Every time that the boys feel safe, or find some source of hope, it is taken away from them, and they are abandoned to fend for themselves in the cut-off village. The only amazing thing is that they continue to put any faith in the adults.

There was a recurring theme in the descriptions of dry grass and dried leaves, and also many descriptions of eyes: dark, limpid, clear, sparkling. This made me wonder if these are symbolic in Japanese culture, just as I was surprised by imagery of the bowed neck of the girl which was compared to a pigeon's back. Another thing that struck me was that this was set in an isolated village in the mountains, and the talk of plague and remote villages reminded me of another book set in Japan, Gail Tsukiyama's 'The Samurai's Garden', where there is an isolated leper's colony. I also noticed that there is a description of snow as "ashen brownish snow", where I would consider ashen to be grey, and I wondered if this is one of those occasions where different languages have different cut-off points for the naming of colours; at what point does yellow become orange, or blue become green? I have also observed this in the difference between orange and brown in Dutch and English. Files which I described as brown were called orange by Dutch colleagues.

All in all, I enjoyed the story, but it doesn't make me want to actively search for any more of Kenzaburo Oe's books.

Ready to send to Vedranaster in Croatia. Just waiting a few more days as she asked me to wait a couple of weeks since PerryFran reminded me I still had the book. The couple of months I have held on to it are entirely my fault, as the book was put on to a pile of books awaiting journalling, then got tidied up out of sight. My apologies for the delay, and I hope Vedranaster will find it interesting reading ("enjoy" may not be the best word). Thank you PerryFran for setting up the ray, and I'm sorry I kept it so long.

This book has been released as part of the following BookCrossing challenges:
- The Ultimate Challenge - read and release books, with extra points for a monthly theme
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - read and release books on the TBR list since before the end of 2011. My reading goal is 75 books.
- Pages Read Challenge - read a self-set target number of pages in 2012. My goal is 26,000.
- 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die Challenge

Once again, I apologise to all of you on this ray for not sending it on. Yet again it got hidden when somebody trying to be helpful put some magazines on top of it so that I forgot it again. I recently contacted Vedranaster to ask if I could send it on, but she has already read a copy. Now I realise that Perryfran restarted the ray with another copy and all the people on this list have already read it. I'm sorry you had to do that; it was never my intention to steal the book or even to stall it for so long. I will try to find more readers for this copy. Please accept my sincere apologies, Perryfran.

Thank you for sending this to me book-guide - looks really interesting. Thanks!