Helpful Score: 2
Very powerful short novel about the tribulations of a group of reform school young men who were relocated to a remote village during WWII. This was somewhat reminiscent of Lord of the Flies because it is about a group of boys forced to deal with circumstances on their own. "Nip the Buds" at times was really hard-hitting and graphic in its descriptions of what had to be endured by the group when the villagers desert them because of a possible outbreak of the plague. The callousness of the villagers was appalling and their treatment of the boys was despicable. This was Oe's first novel published in 1958 - he went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1994. I would be interested in reading some of his later work.
Helpful Score: 1
First published 1958, translated by Paul St. John Mackintosh and Maki Sugiyama in 1985, this edition published 1996. Trade-sized paperback. Story of 15 reformatory boys evacuated to a remote mountain village during wartime. Maybe it's a Japanese "Lord of the Flies"?
