The Bowie Book Club discussion

As usual, discussion thread :-) This month's reading is by Yukio Mishima

Nope. Can't stomach animal cruelty.

Maybe after a few days to cool off I might be able to continue, but I'm setting this one aside for now.

Adriana wrote: "Nope. Can't stomach animal cruelty.

Maybe after a few days to cool off I might be able to continue, but I'm setting this one aside for now."

Yeah, that part made me cringe and feel nauseous too. I texted my Bowie Book Club podcast partner and was super panicked--is this another Clockwork Orange group of boys! (we'd read Clockwork Orange as the first book for the podcast)

I have just finished reading this book but can't claim I read it in its entirety ! I too was horrified at the animal cruelty and skimmed over this section, reading the first couple of words in each paragraph until it was over.
I wondered along the way what Bowie would have thought about this book.
I also came to the realisation that I would be the most boring author ever as I was always hoping for a different path for the characters. Don't take that journey with the 6 boys etc !! Had Ryuji been side tracked the outcome would have been more pleasing for me but would have left it so much more mundane.

It seems to me Bowie had a soft spot for books about boys who think they can do whatever they want without getting punished. I mean, I was a teenager and I thought the world was unfair and it owed me everything, but it never occurred to me consider myself beyond laws and morals. You can't just go around killing people because they seem too emotional or common to you.

The book started out ok, then it got really boring and then became interesting at the end, though I didn't like what they did.

The animal cruelty scene was horrible.