A teenager leaves class and all he wants is to run to get home as soon as possible, but he can’t. Some bullies are waiting for him at the classroom door to force him to swallow a piece of chalk. He knows that if he does he may get sick but he is even more afraid of the beating the group will inflict on him if he refuses. Unable to face them, he complies and they end up leaving him alone. Of course, he does not get rid of insults. This is just one of the many intimidations experienced by the protagonist of Heaven, the new novel by Mieko Kawakami, which has just arrived in Spanish at bookstores by Seix Barral.
“Fourteen years are not easy. You are no longer a child but neither are you an adult. And that feeling of navigating between waters does not improve if you suffer abuse in high school on top of that, ”acknowledges the author during an interview with La Vanguardia by videoconference. Although several years have passed since she wrote it, since it was published in Japan in 2011, “nothing has changed. What’s more, it seems that it has gotten worse, because before the bullying stayed within the four walls of the school and now it is present 24 hours a day because of mobile phones and social networks”.
Narrated in the first person, “because any of us could go through these unpleasant situations”, the nameless teenager in this book receives all kinds of ridicule because of his squint. The anxiety that he suffers for this is present throughout the entire story, as is the possibility of disappearing from this world. The only respite for him is his classmate Kojima, also a victim of all kinds of humiliation at the hands of the rest for always wearing dirty clothes. The two find comfort in that sudden friendship that “saves them from everything bad,” the writer advances.
Although it is a novel, there are several moments in which Kawakami takes the opportunity to write an essay not only about bullying, but also about other deeper issues, such as what is strength and what is weakness. “Human beings are weak by nature. He will only stop if he is convinced otherwise. But this is something too complex and for which there is no exact formula. Writing this book was a way of finding out how the weak deal with and survive evil and whether or not the tables can be turned. Does having a friend make us stronger,” she wonders.
The complaint towards the school community is also evident. There are hardly any teachers throughout the 284 pages. “Most see it but do nothing. Pasotismo is the order of the day. It is easier to look the other way than to address the conflict, and they only apologize if something extreme actually happens, such as suicide. Sometimes not even that. But, beyond the fact that teachers remain on the sidelines, there are many other problems, such as the lack of school psychologists. And this is terrible because without them young people don’t know how to ask for help. Here the Internet can contribute something good. Because although it is a double-edged sword, since the abuse can continue to infinity through this channel, it can also be a tool to request help, accessing telephone numbers attended by professionals”, points out the writer.
Kawakami further points out how tremendous it is when a trauma that can destroy someone’s life is handled on tiptoe and, on top of that, the abuser does not consider it something serious. Doing senseless evil is something that society perpetuates from ever earlier ages. The worrying thing is that, in most cases, you don’t get reprimanded for it. And these actions are perpetuated into the future.”
After gaining a foothold on the international literary scene with her work Pechos y huevos, which earned her the praise of the eternal Nobel contender Haruki Murakami and Elena Ferrante, Heaven arrives at bookstores stomping and ready to stir consciences.
