I finally finished Koushun Takami's Battle Royale. It is overlong, and I've finally decided that the bad writing/bad translating thing may not be an either/or choice, as the book contains this, one of the lamest sentences I've ever read in a published book: "The truck spun around the entire road like a car in a chase scene." Mind you, this is during a chase scene. Can't blame that on the translator.
Having said that, the ending was actually thought-provoking, the annoying Springsteen references finally made sense, and the book's message is actually pretty profound. What carried me through some of the slow parts all the way to the end was a.) the spectacular violence and b.) the author's insight into the teenage psyche. All the crushes and fights and little social things that seem life-or-death to the 15-year-old actually become life-or-death issues. Cool.
In other book news, I was at the bookstore today, because having finished Battle Royale, I need something to read while the girls are at soccer practice tonight, and I saw a big hole on the shelf where How Opel Mehta Faked Her Way Through An Enormous Book Deal had been. So they really are removing it from the shelves. The audio book was still there, though. I thought about buying it as a little collector's item, but then decided I have enough crap in my house already. I was interested to read that the author of Sloppy Firsts says she isn't seeking compensation over this. I have to wonder why not. If it was my book they plagiarized from (it's not too late! Kaavya, you still owe Little, Brown another book! Concentrate on your studies and plagiarize from Donorboy! I'm sure we can still grab some headlines together!), you know I'd be asking for the author's percentage on every copy sold as a starting point. Eh, I guess when your book sells in the six figures, you can afford to be magnanimous.
