I picked up this book at a bookstore in San Francisco on a table of Asian fiction. I am slowly planning a trip to Japan (hopefully early next year) so my next two book reviews concern Japanese writers/stories. Out is translated from the original Japanese so I was expecting it to be a bit disjointed (lit in translation is never as good as the original). Fortunately, I think the English translation actually added to the curt, matter of fact, impersonal writing that characterizes crime fiction (and Japanese fiction in general).
Out reminded me of a Japanese version of the Maltese Falcon/The Big Sleep and I ended up absolutely loving it. The story focuses on 4 women, all in very different situations, who come together to work the night shift at a boxed lunch factory. A murder brings them together and the story is characterized by violence and the seedy yakuza (Japanese gangsters) that inhabit the underbelly of Japanese society. One of the reasons I enjoyed it so much is that the story could easily have taken place in any factory outside any US city.
This book is incredibly violent, so skip this one if you have a weak stomach. For some reason, I have an easier time reading about violence then seeing it (one of my favorite books to this day is Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, if you haven’t read it, get a copy!). I have no problem reading the gory parts of the Sookie Stackhouse series but have not yet been able to get through the first episode of the series True Blood (based on Charlaine Harris’s books). I guess the violence I picture in my head is more of a cartoon version than the violence depicted on TV.
While on my Japan book binge I also purchased Japanland which I will hopefully be writing a review about soon.
*Image taken from the Rice Cracker Review*
