This book is about glory and failed masculinity. It describes the story from an omniscient narrator’s perspective and follows mainly three characters: Noburu, Fusako (Noburu’s mum) and Ryuji who is a sailor who falls in love with Fusako. Noboru and his fellow band of 13 year olds see themselves as highly sophisticated and reject modern society for being too sentimental, illusory and hypocritical. They train themselves in brutality by committing horrible acts such as killing and disembowling kittens. The Sailor, Ryuji, was a man who felt he was destined for greatness and as a young boy, feeling the land could not offer him anything, sought out the see for his grand purpose. However, when he arrives on the island where Fusako lives at almost 30 years old - he realises that he hasn’t achieved much with his life.
It should be noted that this book was written by an extremist right ring Japanese man, who ultimately killed himself in traditional Japanese ritualistic style (seppuko). Although it seems to me that this book criticises these toxic and ultimately unempathetic masculinity types in the book, it is more than likely that the author agreed with them to some degree.
Something I really liked about this book beyond perhaps the themes and general story is that the prose is something out of poetry. The description the author uses is incredibly detailed without becoming tiresome. The similies he uses brings a feeling that would’ve been indescribable through purely literal speak. They’re creative and you can completely picture what they’re describing. You feel the lonliness and isolation between the characters as they struggle to be vulnerable to intimacy but ultimately reject it (at least the male characters do for the most part).