Ryu Murakami. Piercing (№ 446970)

"Children are powerless," Kawashima muttered under his breath. The tears streaming down his cheeks came as a complete surprise to him, and he finished his glass of whiskey in one gulp. No matter how terribly beaten they are, the children cannot respond in kind. Even if their mother walks them around with a shoe horn, a vacuum cleaner hose, a kitchen knife handle, strangles them, scalds them with boiling water, they do not try to run away from her, they do not dare to truly hate. Children are passionate about loving their parents. Rather, they will begin to hate not relatives, but themselves. Love and rage are so intertwined in them that when they become adults and enter into some kind of relationship with other people, only hysterical behavior can save them from heartache.