Hitome Kanehara
06/27/2005 @ 8:11 pm
First it was “Snakes and Earrings,” her debut novel, which won the Akutagawa literary prize, and shocked Japanese readers (well, those who bothered to read it) with its violent and graphic opposition to the traditional cultural expectations of how Japanese girls should behave.
Then it was her second novel, titled “Ash Baby”, which explored the friendship between a young Japanese woman and a child molester.
Now Hitomi Kanehara, all of 22, is getting ready to publish her third novel about a young person with a terrible eating disorder.
Click here to find out more about Hitomi Kanehara and how she is challenging Japan’s taboos in very public ways.
Thanks for posting this, lifted my day.
Not to be too picky, but I wonder if anyone who read the book was actually shocked, or if that is just a convenient titilation used to sell the book and articles about it.
In my opinion, Japanese are not easily shocked. They have taboos, but not in the sense that Auntie Em has taboos.
I would say thay Kanehara’s success is proof that she hasn’t shocked Japan. She is simply saying openly what has been hidden.
Manga conventions are filled with hopeful young kids with black lipstick who have authored graphic manga and middle-aged men in fairy costumes. And these are held at very conventional venues, such as Fukuoka Dome. Kyushu, much less.
This stuff appeals to all kinds of people, not least book critics. There are loads of young women who have been writing similar novels over the past 15 years at least.
Obviously there is something about her writing that sets her apart, and it might be that she is a very good writer.
June 27th, 2005 at 10:08 pm
:wink:
July 11th, 2005 at 9:02 pmThe book caught my eye not because of all the srtong graphics or the violence, but because it really did show how teenagers hit a point of solitude so deep that they cling on to anything they can even if it is their worst enemy.
August 17th, 2005 at 9:26 amGood point, Tanya. Did you read the book in Japanese or English or French?
August 17th, 2005 at 12:24 pm[...] =”/index.php”>
10/19/2005
Paperback Teen Writer
We’ve told you about Hitomi Kanehara whose first book, Hebi ni Piasu, which was translated into English as [...]
October 22nd, 2005 at 12:53 am