Japan's famously demanding education system figures significantly in Natsuo Kirino's new novel Real World, reviewed in Sunday's New York Times books section:
"Real World" begins with a matricide. No longer willing to cooperate with the expectations of the "total idiot" who forced him to attend a prestigious high school even though he lacked the aptitude to succeed in such an environment, Worm bludgeoned his mother to death in what Terauchi, whose worldview allows no possibility of forgiveness or salvation, dismisses as a mindless, infantile response to frustration....Welcome to present-day Tokyo, where "air pollution advisories" announce the arrival of summer vacation and where vacation isn't a holiday from the 11-month academic year, but a break to be spent in cram schools taught by brainwashed college students who advocate studying hard enough to "spit up blood" as the avenue to a "tremendous confidence ... you can build on for the rest of your life."
