Noboru, a thirteen-year-old boy in Yokohama, belongs to a secret gang of youths who reject adult morality in favor of a cold, objective nihilism. When his widowed mother, Fusako, begins a romance with Ryuji, a merchant sailor, Noboru initially idolizes the man as a figure of tragic, oceanic grandeur. However, Ryuji chooses to abandon the sea to marry Fusako and settle into a mundane domestic life. Feeling betrayed by this descent into soft emotionalism, the boys apply their strict philosophical code to conclude that Ryuji must be eliminated to restore the order of their world.
Readers interested in the intersection of post-war Japanese identity and radical traditionalism find here a precise study of alienation. The text appeals to those who study the psychological transition from childhood innocence to calculated cruelty. A reader walks away with a stark understanding of how the desire for absolute purity can manifest as violence. It provides a technical look at how personal disillusionment fuels the destruction of conventional social structures and the rejection of human empathy.
Deep, inward-looking and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Literary Connoisseur. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1963
- Language
- EN
