Lion Cross Point by Masatsugu Ono is about a young boy who has known no love and doesn’t know what to do with himself in this world. Some strong character building in action!
Lion Cross Point Synopsis
When 10-year-old Takeru arrives at his mother’s home village in the middle of a scorching summer, he’s all alone and in possession of terrible memories. Unspeakable things have happened to his mother and his mentally disabled 12-year-old brother. As Takeru gets to know Mitsuko, his new caretaker, and Saki, his spunky neighbor, he meets more of his mother’s old friends, discovering her history and confronting the terrible acts that have left him alone. All the while he begins to see a strange figure that calls himself Bunji—the same name of a delicate young boy who mysteriously vanished one day on the village’s coastline at Lion’s Cross Point.
At once the moving tale of a young boy forced to confront demons well beyond his age, a sensitive portrayal of a child’s point of view, and a spooky Japanese ghost story, Lion’s Cross Point is gripping and poignant. Acts of heartless brutality mix with surprising moments of pure kindness, creating this utterly truthful tale of an unforgettable young boy.
Book review
This story takes place in a coastal village in Kyushu, called Takanoura. Ten-year-old Takeru moves in with Mitsuko, an old acquaintance of his mother and slowly gets to know the other villagers and the area. Before that, he lived in Tokyo with his mother and his older brother.
We follow the confusing account of a young boy who has been traumatized by being mistreated in the past and from seeing his mother mistreated by her dates. He links what he sees in daily life to what happened to him. When he sees a fish being gutted it reminds him of how he was held onto the ground when someone pushed a burning cigarette against his mouth. We follow this boy’s view of everyday life and revisit his past but never fully learn what happened in the past. This is the author’s intention as he chose to respect his character’s privacy.
Takeru thinks a lot about his older brother who has a mental disability, even though no one else seems to acknowledge his brother’s existence. We do see another boy: Bunji. Bunji is a ghost of the past with a story very similar to Takeru’s brother’s. One of them could be real though it is also possible neither of them ever existed. One thing is certain: something happened at Lion’s Cross Point (other than the car accident) and Takeru seems to know or feel something about it.
We also read about things that are part of everyday life in Japan: road closures due to typhoons and landslides, hanging out in convenience stores where it is warm and monkeys with red faces.
Through it all, you can feel Takeru’s pain without it being explicitly mentioned. This story is about a young boy who has known no love and doesn’t know what to do with himself in this world. The people around him aren’t the brightest and they seem unable to help him face the world, though I’d like to think he manages to turn his life around someday.
I recommend this book to those who want to see some strong character building in action. It is not a very exciting story but it excels at making you see and experience the world as Takeru does.
Translated from Japanese by Angus Turvill.
Interested?
You can get your copy of Lion Cross Point from Amazon.
