What was this Japanese novel?
August 22, 2010 4:40 PM Subscribe
Looking for the title of a Japanese novel that involved a cat murder.
I read it for 9th grade English over 10 years ago. It was a translation. All I can recall is that it was about a boy, and I think at some point he murders a cat, or a cat is murdered and he witnesses it or something. The book was very dreamlike/trippy. This is all I can recall, and searches of Google and Amazon have yielded nothing. I don't know the author or anything else.
I read it for 9th grade English over 10 years ago. It was a translation. All I can recall is that it was about a boy, and I think at some point he murders a cat, or a cat is murdered and he witnesses it or something. The book was very dreamlike/trippy. This is all I can recall, and searches of Google and Amazon have yielded nothing. I don't know the author or anything else.
Response by poster: Yeah it definitely would have been in translation pre-2002 at the latest, and the plot description doesn't ring a bell.
posted by norabarnacl3 at 4:54 PM on August 22, 2010
posted by norabarnacl3 at 4:54 PM on August 22, 2010
Do you remember roughly what time period the setting was? It sounds kind of like the beginning of Soseki's I Am a Cat, which is plausible to read in an English class. It was written in 1905-1906 and though it's mostly social satire, starts out with a cat being very nearly killed by a boy.
posted by Jeanne at 5:02 PM on August 22, 2010
posted by Jeanne at 5:02 PM on August 22, 2010
Best answer: Yukio Mishima's The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea.
The boy (and his friends) murders a cat, very methodically, skins it alive, with rubber gloves and all. The boy also looks through a peephole at a sailor who has an affair with his mother, which might be what made you think about the boy witnessing the murder. I'm very very sure that this book is what you're talking about.
posted by suedehead at 5:31 PM on August 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
The boy (and his friends) murders a cat, very methodically, skins it alive, with rubber gloves and all. The boy also looks through a peephole at a sailor who has an affair with his mother, which might be what made you think about the boy witnessing the murder. I'm very very sure that this book is what you're talking about.
posted by suedehead at 5:31 PM on August 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Wow, yes, the title immediately jumped at me. I can recognize the plot now too. Thank you all!
posted by norabarnacl3 at 5:34 PM on August 22, 2010
posted by norabarnacl3 at 5:34 PM on August 22, 2010
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posted by bonsai forest at 4:47 PM on August 22, 2010