Ami Sakurai - Innocent World

When doing my Christmas shopping this year I had a specific request from my roommate for a book that has been banned in America. When I did a search and found that book for sale, Innocent World was another book that was suggested to go along with it. I was instantly curious and had to buy it for myself. Now here's a little peek into Ami's Innocent World...

Plot
This "novella" (more of an autobiography) is the story of Ami Sakurai and the year that she is seventeen. Ami lives in a truly screwed up world. Her parents are hateful to both her and her mentally handicapped brother who she has been having sex with for a few years by then. Her parents send her brother away to live with their aunt and uncle so Ami becomes a prostitute to obtain the money she needs to go see her brother and rent out a room in a "love hotel" every chance she can get. Ami goes greatly into detail about her sexual experiences with her brother, customers, her father, and a gang rape. After becoming pregnant by her brother and discovering that he was only her half brother, Ami goes out in search of her real father, sperm donor No. 307. Only he can give her the answer and hope that she needs to decide whether or not to keep her child.

This book is very poetically written, I am very glad that it was translated from Japanese to English by Steven Clark. Every page with every disgusting detail sounds beautiful in Ami's words, you forget how horribly screwed up every thing that is going on is. You also forget that Ami is one of those girls who if you knew in real life would hate, but love despite all of her flaws after reading her story. I was really shocked throughout the whole book thinking, there is no way that this is an autobiography, there is just no way.

The Verdict
This is truly a must read. I would not suggest it to someone under 15 because it really makes prostitution sound glamorous. I'm not sure if there is a cut-off age in which someone would not enjoy this book, I assume there is since it is about a 17 year old, but it is still very well written, action packed, and I dare you to put it down. Through the first three chapters I kept going "Oh my God" out loud and having to explain to my boyfriend how screwed up the situation in this book is, even his eyes looked like saucers with disbelief after I went through some of the major details. There is no excuse not to give this book a chance. I read it in an approximately three hour sitting and I paid less than $10 for it. This is a fabulous book, I did not really learn anything from it, but it was very entertaining down to the very last sentence.

Pros
Short, Poetic, Well written, Cheap, Entertaining, Overall wonderful book
Cons
Short, Graphic details, Disgusting situations when you really think about it
Read Time 3 Wonderful Hours
Pages 124