Heaven: A Novel

I’ve found it hard to speak or take part in much of anything for over a month now, since Maguna’s passing. But Heaven by Mieko Kawakami was such a tender and thought-provoking book that it made me want to share something again. On the surface, it’s a story about bullying, about both those who hurt and those who are hurt. But beneath that, it’s much more. The novel follows two outsiders, the unnamed narrator and his classmate Kojima, who are bound together by the cruelty they face at school. In each other, they find a quiet kind of understanding, a fragile space where they can simply exist without fear. The violence isn’t really the focus of the book. It’s more of a lens through which Kawakami explores power, love, morality, and the choices we make in our relationships. There’s such tenderness and depth in the conversations between Kojima and the narrator. Their words linger, full of questions about what it means to endure and to care. Reading Heaven made me angry, but it also made me pause and think about how differently cruelty and kindness shape us, depending on where we come from and what we’ve lived through. It’s not a comforting story, but it leaves behind a quiet, haunting kind of grace.

It altered my brain chemistry. I really loved it; it was such a perfect novel. I kept reading it; there was no stopping me from completing this book in a day. It was addictive.

I was waiting for things to get better

DNF:

the things the main character had to go through made me sick and i couldn't continue (even though that was the whole point).

i read the dutch translation, but i don't recommend it.

This was a very dark, complicated novella. I don't think we as adults really understand how bullying starts at a young age, as soon as a child enters into a community of their own peers as young as playing in a playground as a toddler. To have the bullying escalate into pure sadism by the time children emerge in their pre-teen years is hard to grasp. This book makes me question about the Buddhist belief of no retaliation when facing pain and hurt from outside forces, to the way the unnamed protagonist reflects on the abuse he suffers at the hands of his classmates.