I was given a translation project to be worked on next week (argh!) and just now I had a skim through. It turned out to be meatier than I expected (this kind of novels are usually shallow).
It’s a YA novel about two high school boys at a boarding school, isolated between two mountains and miles from the nearest town. The story isn’t at all what I expected. Instead of a straightforward tale of life in a boarding school, it’s a psychological maze of hell.
[Note: this is not an accurate summary, just a general impression of what I read so far.]
The two school boys – sixteen and room mates – are a mirror of each other, but one of them is a ticking bomb. The kind that would end with a tragedy for all at school, e.g. a school massacre, which haunts him through day and night. He’s trying hard to suppress this desire, but it slowly overtakes him, “like a snake slowly swallowing a mouse that’s fighting for its life”.
The other friend – unknown to that friend – is aware of that desire and he knows his friend’s bordering on making it come true. He isn’t sure what he could do because he believes destroying his friend would mean destroying himself, which in turn could affect people around them. And he isn’t sure he’d go that far, anyway, because he feel he’s the “egg” of his friend. The only thing that stands between his friend and a world his friend isn’t meant for.
He however believes the true darkness is himself and his ticking-bomb friend is the true lightness. And that the one who should be destroyed is himself, but he can’t do that until he’s sure the friend truly understands that he can stand alone. It’s a matter of right timing and balance from now to when it’s time.
And there’s this secret affair between him and his ticking-bomb friend’s older sister, whom he nicknames ‘Maya’, who’s treating him rather badly by promising to be there but never does, but appears when least expected. He claims he’s never liked her and that he’s doing it for his ticking-bomb friend, who isn’t aware of the affair, because he knows his friend’s unaware that he’s in love with his own sister. He knows because he feels the same way for his friend himself.
Meanwhile, the ticking-bomb friend claims he has this desire to kill because he feels that the world is contaminating his friend’s purity and nobility. He’s afraid that once corrupted, his friend as his anchor could be so tainted that it’d make it too slippery for him to hold onto. Harder it’s for him to grip, brighter his desire to kill burns.
That’s where I stop – half way through the story – as it was supposed to be a skim. Plus, it was starting to make my eyes swirl in confusion.
As I was struggling through the story, trying to understand what it was all about, I thought it seemed rather German. It’s a Japanese YA novel, but it feels German. I really have no idea why I think this. Probably because of an awareness that German literature (and cinema) has a huge influence on Japanese arts, especially in art and literature? Comics as well. So I may be wrong.
But what on earth makes me think of Germany while reading this, though, anyway? I’m wondering if it’s an adaptation of a German novel? Which if so?
Sorry that all this is so nonsensical. I just want to write it all down to get it out of my system because otherwise, it’d pester me all night.
Have you ever read a novel that basically turned your brain upside down?
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