A slim novella, bordering on shallow, Innocent World by Ami Sakurai crosses the boundary between daring writing and writing merely to shock. The main character, Ami , is a high school call girl working with friends to make money and to fill a void in her life. With a distant, even hateful family, she finds solace through an incestuous relationship with Takuya, her mentally handicapped brother.
A Novel on Japanese Youth
Emotionally neglected and abused by their family, Ami and Takuya find their relief through sex, allowing Ami to connect with her true self. Dispassionate encounters with her clients have little effect on her, while her clients throughout the book look for comfort through bizarre fantasies. The characters throughout look to sex as a way to connect to their inner, truer selves revealing how distorted and damaged so many people are.
Ami eventually discovers that she is actually the product of a sperm donor whom she begins to seek out. Meanwhile she realizes she is pregnant with her half – brother’s baby. Unable to decide between abortion and having the child she continues to seek destruction while her link to her brother begins to fray. An incredibly brutal rape scene, which seems to leave little emotional trauma on Ami, punctuates the latter half of the work, as the author ups the ante in shocking the reader before the story’s climax.
Ami eventually locates her father, a person like herself who is unable to connect and relate to the outer world. As Ami looks for advice on maintaining her pregnancy, they are able to free each other from the fears that have tethered them. As the story closes Ami has found peace of a sort albeit through a passage of incredibly destructive behaviors. Although she largely continues her work, has dropped out of school, and runaway, her ability to reach and connect to friends has grown, and with such a disturbing novel, it has to suffice as a happy ending.
Criticisms of Innocent World
Ami Sakurai’s Innocent World is plagued with juvenile writing as overwrought similes puncture the work throughout. Perhaps it’s a result of Steven Clark’s translation but the writing feels juvenile in general while the story’s events serve merely to shock without exploring any further than superficial emotions. Disaffected Japanese youth received better treatment through Hitomi Kanehara’s Snakes and Earrings, which while flawed escapes the poor writing of Innocent World. While nihilism predominates, there is a spark of hope at the end, however this light does not compensate for an incredibly unsatisfactory reading experience.
Innocent World (ISBN 1-932234-14-4) by Ami Sakurai and translated by Steven Clark was published by Vertical, Inc in 2004.
Brian Jungwiwattanaporn - Living an eclectic life, Brian has found online writing a great way to share and explore his interests. Having recently complete a ...
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