Discover new books on Goodreads
Meet your next favorite book

Ervin Vice's Reviews > On Parole;Harvest Book

On Parole;Harvest Book by Akira Yoshimura
Rate this book
Clear rating

by
M 50x66
's review

really liked it

What if a guy can handle prison and the limbo of parole but is unable - and unwilling - to feel any remorse? Maybe Kikutani shouldn’t be pushed too far on this point.

That’s not the only dilemma. There’s also the idea that when an individual is too tightly constrained by rules and expectations, even if some of them are of his own making, the only escape valve is a sudden violent “frenzy” (the word comes up several times in the book). I’m still trying to decide if that was really one of the author’s messages.

My edition has a reader’s group guide at the end with a lot of interesting questions. They seem designed not to prompt instant answers but to keep you thinking about the book long after you’ve read it. I think for most readers that will be a given. I know I will be tossing the tale of Kikutani around in my head for a while.

Years ago I saw the Japanese movie called “The Eel”. It was loosely based on this book. As good as that movie was, the book in my opinion is better. Page after page, the sense of an impending reckoning grows and grows, slowly and subtly. It’s not a story for the anxious. You’ll be renewing your Xanax prescription before you know it.
flag

Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read On Parole;Harvest Book.
Sign In »

Reading Progress

May 17, 2020 – Started Reading
May 24, 2020 – Shelved
May 24, 2020 – Finished Reading

No comments have been added yet.