The book is about a 19 year old Japanese girl, Lui, who struggles through alienation and a general indifference to life. She dabbles Japanese counterculture in being a Barbie Girl, body modification, tongue forking, tattooing, ear plugs, S&M and alcoholism. Lui feels she cannot tell anymore between moral and amoral, pain and pleasure. The book has a very dark tone and it keeps you guessing what kind of personal journey Lui is on and whether she's going to make it.

My biggest problem with this book is that it relies on the shock value. What if you're like me and not 'shocked' by any of the underground scenes that Lui is involved with? Before I read this book, I knew a fair bit about Japanese subcultures like Barbie Girls, Elegant Gothic Lolitas, Cosplay, etc. And pretty much if I haven't had a friend who has done all the body modifications mentioned, I've seen pictures. When I was younger, I had my hand in many of the North American countercultures... and I felt in the book it was indirectly implied that young people who participate in these activities are somehow 'damaged' in some way. That there is a correlation between body modification and being a lost soul. And I honestly feel that this is a disservice. Not all people who are drawn to being 'different' have 'issues'. So I sort of get my back up when all the characters in Lui's underground life are unstable personalities.

In the end, I had to read the NYTimes review to understand another reason why this book might be worthy of the accolades it has received. Supposedly, it is the the first (or one of the first) Japanese novels to be written about the post-bubble generation (born after the mid-80s) and their struggles to fit into Japanese society. A generation that is disillusioned, that does not always have stable jobs -- Lui is a "freeter" which means she picks up temp jobs whenever she feels like it -- or rejects formal schooling. Apparently, there are no laws in Japan that requires children to attend school and this has led to an under-discussed, but growing segment of the young population that don't have a high school, or even middle school, education. Perhaps if I felt that if these themes were more in the forefront, rather than the background, I would have liked this book more.

Would I recommend this book? Hard to say. If you like to be scandalized or learn more about Japanese counterculture, then yes. If you are going to be bored by pages of description for ear plug gauges because it's old hat (like me), then no. ( )

This book tried so hard to be shocking that it was painful. I was torn between being bored and just being grateful that it was a short 122 pages. Trite at best, this book lacked for character development and any real movement, instead focusing on "how weeeeeird" the characters were and how out of the mainstream they lived. I've read better fanfiction. This is a book for Chuck Palahniuk fans, or people who think that simple things like tongue piercing and light s&m are shocking. ( )

I really liked this book, but its definitely not for everyone. The book is pretty vulgar and graphic, but because of that the story reads as a raw account of life as it occurs. I can't really explain why I feel connected with this story. I found it randomly while browsing for the Burgess novel I wanted; but once I read the preview look in the book thing on amazon, I was hooked into the story. I was excited to read it and wasn't disappointed. The story is gritty and intense but I think thats why I was so enthralled. Lui lives her life truly as she wants and has to live with the consequences and meaning behind the choices that she made. ( )

Disturbing, yet interesting read. Described a lifestyle totally alien to my own and it's good to get jolted out of normality once in a while and delve into weird subcultures......from a safe distance. ( )

This won Japan's top literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, in 2004, and sold more than a million copies. Its heroine is a Barbie Doll. The term is not explained, but I read it as meaning one of those young women with dyed blonde hair, cute clothes and striking make-up who catch the eye around Tokyo, especially in Harajuku. But she's a Barbie Doll who, with no explanation or back story, identifies as a masochist and has appalling things done to her in sexual encounters, only one of which (I'm grateful for small mercies) is graphically described. She also aspires to elements of punkdom, including having her tongue pierced and then cut so as to be forked. She becomes accessory after the fact to two brutal killings, one of them involving prolonged torture, with not a tremor of misgiving. I didn't read this in Japanese, and its finer qualities may have been lost in translation, but I didn't find it particularly well written, and its subject matter is Definitely Not My Cup Of Tea. It left me looking uneasily out of the corner of my eye at the young people, especially the ones with tattoos, who were responding with apparent reverence and cheerful good humour to the art on Naoshima, where I read the book. ( )