International Herald Tribune
‘Kanehara is an instant star’

New York Times
‘A powerful portrait of the post-bubble generation’

As with many contemporary Japanese writers, I found the sparse, uncluttered style of this novel appealing, but ultimately it was very difficult to connect in any way with the three central 'blank generation' characters. There was a whole fascinating subculture of extreme body modification to be explored here, but the writer just tinkered around the edges. I came away still not understanding why anyone would want to have their tongue pierced or expand ear-piercings to large holes.