قصة الكتاب :
Kadokawa Shoten (Kadokawa Bunko), 2007. 540 pp. ¥705. ISBN
978-4-04-183514-2.

Himeno Kaoruko
Born in Shiga Prefecture in 1958. Debuted with Hito yonde Mitsuko
[A Girl Named Mitsuko]
in 1990 after submitting the unsolicited
manuscript to a publisher. Named a candidate for the Naoki Prize
in 1997 for Junan [The Passion]; in 2004 for Tsu, i, ra, ku; in 2006
for Haruka Eiti [Haruka Eighty]; and in 2010 for Riaru Shinderera
[The Real Cinderella]. In 2014 she won the Naoki Prize for Shōwa
no inu [Shōwa Dogs].

This book sketches a quintessentially human drama, centered on second-grade
children. The girls awaken to love early, building social relationships every bit as
complex as those of adults before entering junior high school and discovering
sex. The adolescence of Morimoto Junko is prominent in the story. She falls violently
in love with her Japanese teacher, Kawamura, ultimately getting hurt
before she graduates. Himeno Kaoruko vividly depicts the life of young girls, and
the precocious sexual experiences of Junko in particular, with a satirical touch.
The work dispels the pure and beautiful, tender and vulnerable image of teenage
love. The girls fall in love, immediately move on to sex, and become women
in the space of a night. The boundary between love and sex is ambiguous, but this
does not bother them. Perhaps the distinction between earnest affection and exultant
sex is one that these young girls do not need to make. This may be the first
time that the uninhibited love of teenagers has been written about so directly.
It is Himeno’s style that particularly draws the reader’s attention. With exquisitely
crafted sentences and effective use of variations in tone, she describes the
diverse lives of the growing girls.
Another feature is the bold use of elements meant to elicit laughter. It is difficult
to employ humor in romantic fiction, but this book organically integrates
these elements into the text. In overturning the rules of love stories one by one,
the work achieves an unprecedented freshness and emotional heft. The unique
story and combination of a variety of voices create a novel that will linger in readers’
memories. (CK)