Out by Natsuo Kirino Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Out
Book Review: A very special read!
Summary: 5 Stars
Satake-San, the most memorable character in the same par as Masako.
...at the end, Masako travels to Kabuki-Cho. A bleak place illuminated by a weak afternoon sun, and faded billboards. Satake-Sans birthplace! Masako yearns to breath in the same air he breathed, to see the same things he did!
Beautifully written.
Book Review: Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
I was drawn into it's web, and very much enjoyed the intricate weave the author spun. Not for children, it's a look into a lives of everyday, weathered people, unsure of their place in their world and struggling to find one.Book Review: Compelling novel-noir
Summary: 5 Stars
Four (4) women, various ages, all work together on the late night shift in a Japanese food factory. Each woman's personality dictates the particular place she takes on the assembly line. Their jobs are simply making lunch sandwiches - but about 600 sandwiches a night. On top of their awful low paying and boring jobs, each has a hard and miserable personal life. Early on in the novel one by one they come together to "help" one of the group who needs to cover up a murder she has committed. The women then justify their particpation in the cover up by claiming they are doing it for much needed money. The characters and scenery come to life in the way the details are presented, no matter the subject. In fact, it is because of these details that this book immediately sets itself apart from most others. The book is a real page turner. As the story draws to a close the pace quickens and what was already interesting is now compelling. This book a winner. For me, it's not just great storylines but those in combination with the fascinating and unusual Japanese customs and traditions, brings it way over the top. I'm glad I've found a new source for crime fiction that I'd never have predicted.Book Review: Desperate housewives--Japanese style
Summary: 5 Stars
Four women who work the night shift at a boxed lunch factory become involved in a nightmarish spiral of murder, mutilation, and cover-up when one of them kills her husband in a fit of passion. Each of them is caught in a domestic trap that makes them vulnerable to desperate schemes born of hopelessness. Masako is a strong, capable woman who lives in a sterile, loveless household. Beautiful Yayoi has two children and is saddled with a philandering gambler for a husband. Skipper is a widow who barely ekes out a living caring for her mother-in-law, a teenage daughter, and a grandson. Kuniko is a vain, despicable woman, self-centered and deep in debt. One of the many pleasures of this suspenseful novel is watching how the consequences of their actions radiate, like ripples from a stone dropped into still water, until they awaken the long-repressed sadistic passions of a disturbed killer.
Perhaps Kirino could be faulted for telegraphing some of her plot developments earlier than necessary, but this remains an exceedingly powerful suspense novel. I was drawn into the lives of these women and was sorry when the story came to an end. An added bonus is the glimpse it provides of Japan's dark side, a much needed humanizing touch for Americans who still hold a stereotypical view of Japan as a society of polite human worker bees. I hope more of Kirino's novels will be translated into English in the near future.
Book Review: Exceptionally Good Picture of the Underside of Japan
Summary: 4 Stars
I approached this book with reservations. I had read very good reviews about it but I also read that much of its impact was from the atmosphere it creates and not simply from the plot. Usually this would not be a concern but as I have read some Japanese novels that were unbelievably esoteric, it raised a red flag. Also, I heard that there were heavy themes of women's "second class" status and "women's empowerment" throughout the book, which are usually code phrases for women who may be in tough spots, but often no worse than many men, and who respond by being as nasty as possible to men and are thereafter applauded for behavior for which a man would be trashed. I decided to buy the book with a gift certificate figuring I had nothing to lose and that the book would be either very bad or very good. It was very good.
The book is actually not a mystery but rather a crime novel. I dislike reviews that reveal significant plot twists, so let me assure any reader that I am not revealing anything noteworthy when I say the murder occurs early, we know it is the wife who did it, we know why and we know her friends on the night shift help dispose of the body. The mystery is whether they will be caught and how the crime affects the women, all of whom are indeed in tough personal spots. The murder acts as a catalyst for drawing their individual personal difficulties into the foreground and creating the types of conflict and tension that genuinely makes readers wonder what they would do in such situations.
Kirino does an excellent job of developing the plot. Loose ends are not only resolved but often the reader does not know something is a loose end until it arises a second time at the worst possible moment to push a character even further into a corner. The characters are well drawn and the reader can relate to them easily. Though, on one of the few drawbacks of the book, the actual language employed by the author is often a bit too clinical for a book of this type. Such language, almost technical in nature, is not so overpowering as to detract from the plot, the characters or the gloomy atmosphere created, but it was noticeable, especially in a novel with so many strengths going for it.
I find it difficult to say which was most powerful - the solid plot, the strong character development or the dark atmosphere about a side of Japan not seen in the travel brochures. What I can say is that the combination made for an excellent book that is well worth recommending.