num_pages: 536
description: This is the fascinating true story of a Japanese boy's growing disillusionment with the conduct of a patriotic war.Boy H's father was a tailor, his mother a tambourine-banging Christian in a country of very few Christians. His childhood unfolded in the 1930s, when militarism was steadily strengthening its grip on Japan; it ended when the nation lay in ruins. What set H apart from other kids, despite the sharedpreoccupation with schoolmates, movies, and sex, was an unusually sharp eye and a precociously skeptical attitude that made him a bit of a loner in a conformist society.Though at times dark, his anecdotes are arranged with the lightest of touches and a sharp sense of humor. The total effect is of a rich, varied, and intensely readable novel, but one that involves real lives, actual events.
language: English
title: A Boy Called H: A Childhood in Wartime Japan
titlecomplete: A Boy Called H: A Childhood in Wartime Japan
genres: Historical, World War II, Japan, Japanese Literature, Historical Fiction, Literature
ratings_count: 112
publisher: Kodansha USA