Battle Royale
Koushun Takami
Translator: Yuji Oniki
Viz Communications

by Julia Nardin

“To everyone I love, even though it might not be appreciated,” reads the dedication page of Koushun Takami’s foreign language blockbuster hit Battle Royale.

I don’t know about Takami’s family, but personally, I would feel apprehensive about having a novel dedicated to me in which a group of junior high school students are spirited away to a deserted island by the government and forced to kill each other off until only one remains.

The rules of Battle Royale are simple: If a period of 24 hours passes without a student having bitten the proverbial (and often literal) bullet, they’re all put to death via the highly explosive collars fastened snugly around their throats.

Complete with a score sheet and map of the island at the front of the book, Battle Royale makes for an intense read. At times, it comes off as a deceptively blasé psychological study rather than an artful work of fiction.

The novel’s only problem arises with its fumbling English translation. Reminiscent of a child’s first steps, the prose is at times grotesque, and when one considers the context in which it is supposed to be read, this may not be such a bad thing. Takami keeps nothing from his audience, joyfully describing bits of splattered brains painted across a fleshy canvas in a way that makes the reader want to pitch his novel out the window. I daresay that’s his point, and it’s a point he makes well.


Last of the Red Hot Bootleggers
Old Harper
Man Vs. Machine Records

by Simon Astin

I stayed up stupid-late last night trying to find some good ’ole cable b-porn. I think I eventually fell asleep while watching some movie from 1973 called Sexual Liaisons—it reminded me of the first Penthouse I ever bought. Well, I ended up having one of those “never ever want to wake up, I just want to lay in bed and smile” dreams. You know the ones. So I slept in super late and now I feel kinda fuzzy.

But at least I have this CD. It totally fucking destroys. Go find it. Now. Drop this damn paper. Run to Ditch and bug ‘em to get it for you. The band is from Winnipeg, and sounds a little like the Beans, Explosions in the Sky, or even Mogwai. If you’re a fan of these, go find it.

When you get this CD and listen to it, you might even have dreams like I did last night.