Natsuo Kirino: Out

I tried desperately to figure out Masako's motivation too. The only conclusion I came to is that her background led her to this. She had been a strong, smart and hard-working woman who was underappreciated, disliked and ultimately phased out of her career. Besides her bitterness towards men, perhaps her management skills just kicked in?

And while it isn't explicitly stated, Jumonji did have the goods on her, so perhaps she felt subtley blackmailed into the second job.

And as for the original Kenji dismemberment, I never felt that Kuniko was a full participant. She walked in on it and then they kind of backed her up against the wall to dispose of a few bags. Which she royally screwed up!

Overall though I think the author was illustrating how apparently normal people will act in unusual circumstances. And of course how a group dynamic will propel events. I enjoy those kinds of stories because it makes one think long and hard about what their own response and actions would be. It's uncomfortable, but provocative.

So we can continue using a Book of the Month thread for June in July?

Well, to be honest, the small details of the plot are already escaping my memory, but I don't remember any incoherence of charters' motivations that some people mentioned above. Maybe I was too engrossed in the extreme story and my normal sensibility was having a holiday. Or maybe the essential scenes and tones in which they were described were somehow lost in translation (I read it in the original Japanese.) Or more likely, Japanese way of thinking was unreadable to the Western readers.

grit said:

Overall though I think the author was illustrating how apparently normal people will act in unusual circumstances. And of course how a group dynamic will propel events. I enjoy those kinds of stories because it makes one think long and hard about what their own response and actions would be. It's uncomfortable, but provocative.

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These is a really good point! I really hadn't thought about the "group think" aspect of the book.

Netherbard said:

So we can continue using a Book of the Month thread for June in July?

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You can discuss any of the books chosen as BOTM at any time you like

Monketcatcher said:

You can discuss any of the books chosen as BOTM at any time you like

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Netherband: If you get out of line we'll spank you.

This was my first shot at Japanese crime fiction. In general, I do like the genre so I thought I'd try some more. Any other recommendations?

drmjwdvm said:

Netherband: If you get out of line we'll spank you.

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It's Netherbard; a combination term of 'nether' and 'bard.' I thought 'nether' (as in netherworld) meant 'lower' or 'underground.' In other words, I wanted my handle name to mean 'underground poet.' Perhaps I gave myself a rather strange name?
Sorry, I'm getting off the subject here.

Up until recently, I've been under the impression that this genre, crime fiction, was called thus because it's focused on crimes or criminals themselves. Therefore, not like the mainstream whodunits, the core interest of the story is laid on the process of crimes committed or how the characters' motives develop. But this list makes the boundaries ambiguous.
The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time

At any rate, compared with detective stories of old days, today's crime(s)/criminal(s) -centred novels are extremely vivid in descriptions -- sometimes unnecessarily gruesome. and I can't help wondering if this is due to the depraved condition that our society is in nowadays. In the case of this novel OUT, the detailed account of Satake's first murder was very shocking. Do you think it's all right for the young readers to get used to this type of sex&violence gore?

Further Reading

Those who liked Out might be interested to try the author's other novel Soft Cheeks. English translation has not come out yet I'm afraid, but according to Kirino's official website, there are French, Italian, Korean and Taiwanese translations available.

Netherbard said:

Those who liked Out might be interested to try the author's other novel Soft Cheeks. English translation has not come out yet I'm afraid, but according to Kirino's official website, there are French, Italian, Korean and Taiwanese translations available.

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Could you give us a synopsis?

I just finished this very compelling book and just have a few comments to make about it.

First of all, I rarely read thrillers and usually haven't much stomach for gore and violence, but I was sucked into this story immediately. The descriptions of the women's lives in Tokyo were depressing yet fascinating at the same time. I liked the writer's ability to portray all of the characters so vividly and give the reader a good chance to look into all of their lives.

My biggest problem with the book was Satake's character. I realize that the reader needs to understand that he's a bad guy, but I felt that making him into a garden variety extremely-intelligent-and-will-stop-at-nothing-before-he-gets-his-intended-target psycho killer was kind of a cop-out. I was rather disappointed in that because I felt like it's been done so much in the past and that I could understand that he was someone to be feared without him being a lunatic. I do have to admit that he was a scary guy, though!

I was very interested in the women because the author did such a good job of setting everything up and then turning everyone loose to do what they would in the bizarre circumstances. And the twists and turns in the plot were nothing short of brilliant. But Masako's character was the least developed until later in the story and I had a bit of trouble with her and Satake's relationship at the end. It was all just a little too bizarre for me to handle. I realize that it was a major component of the story and an explanation of Masako's psychological make-up, but I think I wanted her to be a little more ordinary.

PaulaQ said:

But Masako's character was the least developed until later in the story and I had a bit of trouble with her and Satake's relationship at the end. It was all just a little too bizarre for me to handle. I realize that it was a major component of the story and an explanation of Masako's psychological make-up, but I think I wanted her to be a little more ordinary.

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I agree toally with this - the relationship between the two at the end was just too far out to be believable, and detracted from an otherwise great ending. It just seemed to me to be totally out of sync with the rest of the book.

drmjwdvm said:

Could you give us a synopsis?

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Soft Cheeks came out a year after the publication of Out. It's a story about a mother in search of her five-year-daughter who disappeared when her family and the mother's lover's family were staying at the lover's villa. The lack of my writing skills makes it sound like a silly joke but it's actually an intricate drama backed by a very unique character study.

This is a French translation:
Disparitions
http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/2268042618/171-2479946-9926657?v=glance&n=301061&s=gateway&v=glance

OK, just finished it and here's some thoughts:

I don't DISlike it, and there are some very interesting things to it. I really liked the theme of outsiders in Japan - women, immigrants, low-income workers in one of the world's richest countries; the overall story is interesting too - not exactly unique, but interesting enough to keep me turning the pages. And the way she describes a lot of crucial scenes from more than one perspective is really well-done. Plus, hey, gore. Me like gore.

However, I do have some problems with it. For starters - and this is something that might be partly the translator's fault - while it's mostly well-written, there's a lot of redundancies and unnecessary clarifications that violate the show-don't-tell rule. For instance:

He was wearing a soiled suede jacket over a black sweater. The worn look of the jacket seemed to mirror his mental state.

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Why TELL us what it symbolizes? She does this again and again. A similar problem is that we are TOLD about character's flaws - I can't find the quote right now, but it says something about Satake that he was unaware that of a character flaw of his; show, don't tell, Kirino. It's clumsy. (And the passage where they estimate the length of a corpse lying flat on its back to "about 168 centimetres" - a fairly exact estimate - is another symtom of this.)

Which brings us to the characters themselves; for the most part, they're really well-drawn and you empathize with their plight, even if the book hardly has a single likeable character. (By "likeable" I don't mean "nice"; I consider Humbert Humbert and Patrick Bateman likeable characters, even if they ARE evil.) I love the fact that there isn't one hero in shining armor, it's all one huge moral grey area, but at times I find myself not really caring what happens to any of the characters since they're all so... well, whiny. And Satake is WAY too exaggeratedly psycho, as Paula said above.

Which brings us to Masako, arguably the "hero" of the piece. On a whole, I like her, she's a fascinating character, but time and again she does things that I just don't buy. On one page, she's having nightmares about cutting up a body, and on the next she's excited about doing it again. She's supposedly cold as ice, yet for some reason men half her age seem to become obsessed with her. She wants to die, she wants to live, she doesn't care about her friends, yet she pities Satake, she wants out, she goes back in... Make up your mind already.

At one point, Kirino name-drops Ryu Murakami. I was way ahead of her; I'm not very well-read on Murakami, but the works of his I'm familiar with - "In The Miso Soup" and the script for "Audition" (which features an ending very similar to the one in "Out") - do tackle similar subjects. Only "In The Miso Soup" did it sharper, bloodier and in less than 200 pages.

In short: a decent effort. Not spectacular, not bad. 3/5.

Just a heads-up to anyone in the UK who hasn't read this: there's a nice new edition just published as part of Vintage's 'East' series (of contemporary Japanese fiction). At £4.99, it's also a bit of a bargain.

theoptimist said:

I hope that Kirino's other works are translated in the near future.

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She has had another book translated, released in the UK last month, called Grotesque. I've got it from the library, but have yet to read it.

Taken from Amazon.com
From Publishers Weekly
"Readers with a taste for ambiguity and oddball characters will enjoy this twisted novel of suspense from Japanese author Kirino (Out). The Apartment Serial Murders case, which involved the brutal killings of two Tokyo prostitutes, has gripped the country, leading to the arrest of a Chinese immigrant, Zhang Zhe-zhong, for the crimes. Strangely, Zhang freely admits to murdering the first victim, Yuriko Hirata, but denies the near-identical slaying 10 months later of Kazue Sato. The events leading to the killings are related from a variety of perspectives—that of Yuriko's unnamed older sister, bitterly jealous of her sibling's good looks; of each victim; and of the accused. Unusual connections—for example, Kazue was a classmate of the older sister—cast doubt on the veracity of individual narrators. This mesmerizing tale of betrayal reveals some sobering truths about Japan's social hierarchy. 4-city author tour. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. "

I really wanted to post on this thread about the book, but unfortunately so much time has passed that I don't recall the details of the story, just how much I enjoyed it. I plan on giving it a re-read, and will post my thoughts then.

I have this book, but probably won't be reading it just yet. I will be watching this thread with interest though.

hey angerball, thanks for the tip on Grotesque. i'll keep my eye out for it. sounds interesting.