Name: Heaven
ISBN: 9788833573649

Mieko Kawakami

Heaven

Caridee Huang

Roos

There are all kinds of things in the world I don't understand, but I really wanted to understand you.

Children who feel pain are so young that their attempts to resolve it can be considered nothing but kindhearted 

“When you feel like everything’s falling apart, or feel like things are too good to be true,” I said, “when things get that way, you can cut my hair. Instead of cutting up the junk mail or whatever when nobody else is home. Just let me know, and you can cut it, whenever you want.”

Maria

raia – inactive

“Sometimes you can’t see the scars. But there’s a lot of pain, I think.”

Hailed as a bold foray into new literary territory, Kawakami's novel is told in the voice of a 14-year-old student subjected to relentless torment for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, the boy chooses to suffer in complete resignation. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate who suffers similar treatment at the hands of her tormenters. These raw and realistic portrayals of bullying are counterbalanced by textured exposition of the philosophical and religious debates concerning violence to which the weak are subjected. Kawakami's simple yet profound new work stands as a dazzling testament to her literary talent. There can be little doubt that it has cemented her reputation as one of the most important young authors working to expand the boundaries of contemporary Japanese literature. "One of Japan's brightest stars is set to explode across the global skies of literature."--Japan Times

this book is bittersweet and rather more bitter than sweet,this has many detailed descriptions of a really bothering thing and i guess its for the character?.i dont really know.this book is good,but i dont wanna read it again

maher

god it’s so crazy to me that these things actually happen irl (long overdue review)

this book make me feel something idk, like that hollow feeling when you finished a good books or good movie just makes you think you know that feeling, yeah

𓃠

this book made me feel so many things i think it broke me 

ayoni

when i finished heaven, i just stared at the ceiling for about an hour. the last few chapters left me feeling heart-wrenched in a way i wasn't prepared for. this book felt so personal—i highlighted so many passages that shifted the way i think. mieko kawakami is a brilliant writer who gives meaning to her stories in such a subtle way, letting us absorb it without directly spelling it out. for me, heaven is a masterpiece. i want to read it again, but i don't know if i can—it left me feeling hollow, a reminder of how cruel people can be.

one of my favorite passages (and i have many) is this:

“Coincidence is all there is. That’s how the world works. I’m not just talking about you getting bullied. Does anything in the world ever happen for a reason? Pretty sure the answer’s no. Yeah, once it’s happened, you can come up with all kinds of explanations that look like they make perfect sense. But everything starts from nothing. Always. You were born for no reason, and the same for me. There’s no reason for us to be here. But there are these, I don’t know, tendencies. Sometimes you just want to do something. You get these, like, urges. Like you want to punch someone, or kick someone, whoever happens to be there. The only reason those things happened to you is that you were around when someone was looking for someone to punch. That’s all.”

that line broke me. this is definitely one of my favorite books—it made me feel emotions i didn’t even know i was capable of feeling.

when i finished heaven, i just stared at the ceiling for about an hour. the last few chapters left me feeling heart-wrenched in a way i wasn't prepared for. this book felt so personal—i highlighted so many passages that shifted the way i think. mieko kawakami is a brilliant writer who gives meaning to her stories in such a subtle way, letting us absorb it without directly spelling it out. for me, heaven is a masterpiece. i want to read it again, but i don't know if i can—it left me feeling hollow, a reminder of how cruel people can be.

one of my favorite passages (and i have many) is this:

“Coincidence is all there is. That’s how the world works. I’m not just talking about you getting bullied. Does anything in the world ever happen for a reason? Pretty sure the answer’s no. Yeah, once it’s happened, you can come up with all kinds of explanations that look like they make perfect sense. But everything starts from nothing. Always. You were born for no reason, and the same for me. There’s no reason for us to be here. But there are these, I don’t know, tendencies. Sometimes you just want to do something. You get these, like, urges. Like you want to punch someone, or kick someone, whoever happens to be there. The only reason those things happened to you is that you were around when someone was looking for someone to punch. That’s all.”

that line broke me. this is definitely one of my favorite books—it made me feel emotions i didn’t even know i was capable of feeling.

fara

insane. i had fun reading it, it completely blew my mind, though. the narrations and scenes are quite shocking. this is tragic, to be very honest, and it makes us think deeply. overall, it isn't a story about “everything will be fine" or whatever but about how humans find meaning or lack of meaning in suffering. so yeah, absolute cinema. 

'Mieko Kawakami is a genius' Naoise Dolan, author of Exciting Times From the bestselling author of Breasts and Eggs and international literary sensation Mieko Kawakami comes a sharp and illuminating novel about a fourteen-year-old boy subjected to relentless bullying. In Heaven, a fourteen-year-old boy is tormented for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, he chooses to suffer in silence. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate, Kojima, who experiences similar treatment at the hands of her bullies. Providing each other with immeasurable consolation at a time in their lives when they need it most, the two young friends grow closer than ever. But what, ultimately, is the nature of a friendship when your shared bond is terror? Unflinching yet tender, sharply observed, intimate and multi-layered, this simple yet profound novel stands as yet another dazzling testament to Mieko Kawakami's uncontainable talent. There can be little doubt that it has cemented her reputation as one of the most important young authors at work today. 'An expertly told, deeply unsettling tale of adolescent violence' Vogue Translated from the Japanese by David Boyd and Sam Bett.

rip kierkegaard u would’ve loved the theme of this novel 

mims

my first book EVER (like novel-wise) it left me empty and its so emotional, this book made me fell in love with reading, Mieko Kawakami’s writing style is beautiful. its also fairly relateable as a teenager trying to understand myself

I really enjoyed this book, especially as someone who was bullied in middle school- differently than the two characters in the book but a lot of the feelings were so similar. It hit hard. 

Katie Berges 

Can hardly recall how many times I said “Kasian banget” and “Gak kuat bacanya ya Allah” while reading.

gitsa

I don't know how to feel about this book. It had its good parts and bad parts. I feel like I need to digest it a little bit and reorganise my thoughts. But here's a first impression:

It started really well and I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of it. 

What left me confused is that I am not quite sure where this book was trying to go in some passages. It felt like it was pulling us to something but then led us nowhere. Maybe that is simply a way to symbolize the harsh bullying these kids endured and their jumbled headspaces. 

- There was something interesting about Momose's character revelation. We knew that he was a bystander throughout the entire torture sessions but in the beginning, it seemed there was a deeper reason to it. The dialogue that he has with the main character left me speechless. I was like "wow... what a psycho". The fact that in this world there are so many people like him, that have no regard/ sympathy towards what they deem as strangers and see everything in such a black and white way. Scary, sad and revolting.

Marta

I don't know how to feel about this book. It had its good parts and bad parts. I feel like I need to digest it a little bit and reorganise my thoughts. But here's a first impression:

It started really well and I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of it. 
What left me confused is that I am not quite sure where this book was trying to go in some passages. It felt like it was pulling us to something but then led us nowhere. Maybe that is simply a way to symbolize the harsh bullying these kids endured and their jumbled headspaces. 

Scattered thoughts: 

- There was something interesting about Momose's character revelation. We knew that he was a bystander throughout the entire torture sessions but in the beginning, it seemed there was a deeper reason to it. The dialogue that he has with the main character left me speechless. I was like "wow... what a psycho". The fact that in this world there are so many people like him, that have no regard/ sympathy towards what they deem as strangers and see everything in such a black and white way. Scary, sad and revolting.

- The bullying scenes are quite graphic and really break your heart. Makes you feel almost helpless, wanting to desperately help these characters. 

- Kojima's free spirit. 

- The masturbation scenes were some of the scenes that I personally saw as extremely unexpected and borderline unnecessary. I think I can understand where they come from but I just felt uncomfortable reading that and left me wondering "why?". I get it but she writes graphically so it can be quite jarring.





hana

Millie 💌

makes you think how much you loathe this world 

Looking back at this book, I did not like it as much as I used to. Maybe it’s because of translation? I can’t exactly put my finger on it. Personally I no longer understand the point of this novel because the ending was hard to interpret. One could say that it’s about the combination of psychological and physical bullying which is known  in Japan, but the ending gave me more questions and left bad taste. You could maybe say it’s open to interpretation on purpose to keep you thinking, but i’ve done the thinking, and I’m not sure I like this book anymore. It’s like a sandwich with like good middle but super flimsy, bitter, old bread.

angel abad cesa 

Absolutely loved this book. The story felt so real, as if I was right next to him throughout the whole book. The writing was top tier, really pulled me in. AND the ending was different than what I had in mind, but it fit perfectly.

"We'll understand some things while we're alive and some after we die. But it doesn't really matter when it happens. What matters is that all the pain and all the sadness have meaning.”

elinabel hidalgo 

Absolutely loved this book. The story felt so real, as if I was right next to him throughout the whole book. The writing was top tier, really pulled me in. AND the ending was different than what I had in mind, but it fit perfectly.

—

"We'll understand some things while we're alive and some after we die. But it doesn't really matter when it happens. What matters is that all the pain and all the sadness have meaning.”

pls check mieko kawakami’s hard drive wtf

Zoilo Comia

firmly believe mieko kawakami may be my favorite japanese author

kate 

Haley

** spoiler alert **
           "It must have been some kind of flower that only grows in fall. But captivated as I was, I realized this was just another marvel from a world that would never accept me. The only feeling that was truly mine was the pain lingering in my nose."

**

"For people to actually live by some golden rule, we'd have to be living in a world with no contradictions. But we don't live in a world like that. No one does. People do what works for them, whatever makes them feel good."

**

"When our worlds come into contact, it might look like they're connected, but they're not. It's like you said before. You thought you get bullied because of your eyes. To me, though, that doesn't make any sense. I don't care if things are so bad that you can't sleep. That's got nothing to do with me. It doesn't make me feel anything. Nothing."

**

I found the dialogue between "Eyes" and Momose to be the most momentous scene in the entire novel, but also the most eye-opening for Eyes (in the harshest way possible). To confront one of your tormentors in hopes of finally understanding how someone can harm another in such a cruel way, only to learn that they 1) don't feel guilt in the first place and 2) never even considered it to be bullying, is devastating because, is there really any use in changing the mind of a nihilist?

I loved it. This was a great introduction to Kawakami. Not sure what to rate this book but it was a great read.

choe

From the bestselling author of Breasts and Eggs and international literary sensation Mieko Kawakami, comes a sharp and illuminating novel about a teenage boy subjected to relentless bullying.

what stays will stay, and what won’t, won’t. hard read, but liked it. 