Out (Natsuo Kirino)
Recommended by a colleague of mine, this Japanese "murder mystery" is so much more than that. Evokes a mood, sort of like Wind-Up Bird Chronicle but better, since the plot actually has momentum.
It's about four Japanese women in various stages of desperation who work the night shift at a factory making boxed lunches. Then gruesome things begin to happen, along the lines of dismemberments and disturbing sex murders. The story focuses on the characters mostly, it's not gratuitous or all-encompassing, but the gruesome stuff is really quite disturbing and will linger in your mind as you read. The Japanese seem to be more ready to explore deviant sexuality (at least judging by the octopus rape anime stuff). So be forewarned!
The characters are vividly drawn and psychologically three-dimensional, even the minor characters. The book pulls you into its dark world along with the characters. The focal character, Masako, is fascinating. She's got this amazing detachment as she allows herself to be drawn deeper and deeper into her own hidden darknesses (to what extent you buy her complicity towards the end is an interesting question).
My only issue--and really it's not much of one--is Kuniko. She's a great character, vivid and plausible and you love to hate her, but there's a lot of fat=ugly, fat=lazy, fat=no self control stuff going on in the book, and while it works for this particular character, the way that the author relied on her weight or her eating to define her so negatively was kind of troubling. Still, she works wonderfully as a character, so like I said, not much of a complaint.
On the whole--if you don't mind a very dark story--I recommend it!
It's about four Japanese women in various stages of desperation who work the night shift at a factory making boxed lunches. Then gruesome things begin to happen, along the lines of dismemberments and disturbing sex murders. The story focuses on the characters mostly, it's not gratuitous or all-encompassing, but the gruesome stuff is really quite disturbing and will linger in your mind as you read. The Japanese seem to be more ready to explore deviant sexuality (at least judging by the octopus rape anime stuff). So be forewarned!
The characters are vividly drawn and psychologically three-dimensional, even the minor characters. The book pulls you into its dark world along with the characters. The focal character, Masako, is fascinating. She's got this amazing detachment as she allows herself to be drawn deeper and deeper into her own hidden darknesses (to what extent you buy her complicity towards the end is an interesting question).
My only issue--and really it's not much of one--is Kuniko. She's a great character, vivid and plausible and you love to hate her, but there's a lot of fat=ugly, fat=lazy, fat=no self control stuff going on in the book, and while it works for this particular character, the way that the author relied on her weight or her eating to define her so negatively was kind of troubling. Still, she works wonderfully as a character, so like I said, not much of a complaint.
On the whole--if you don't mind a very dark story--I recommend it!
posted by mo pie at 10:15 AM
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