Robyn Summers (robynsummers) wrote in storytellers, @ 2008-07-18 19:20:00 |
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Current mood: | calm |
Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino
Title: Grotesque
Author: Natsuo Kirinio
ISBN-13: 978-1400096596
Author's Web Page/Journal: </a>Bubblonia
I have finished Grotesque and I don't think I will be able to clearly articulate how I feel about it. On Goodreads.com I put the books on my shelves of "Psychology," "Mystery-Crime," "Foreign/translated lit" and "Society/Culture" because it does encompass all this, even as a work of fiction. Or perhaps especially as a work of fiction. This book is told through first-person narratives. There's the initial unnamed narrator who is half Japanese-half Swiss. This story takes place in Japan, though some characters look to their past to events in China or Switzerland. Her younger sister, Yuriko, is "monstrously beautiful." There's also Kazue Sato, a classmate of the first narrator (UN for "unnamed narrator") in Q High School for Young Women, which is a competitive high school. It turns out Yuriko and Kazue are both murdered after becoming prostitutes, and about twenty years after they were all in Q High School for Young Women. The story is told through UN's narration, as though she's speaking to us, Yuriko's journal (after her death), the accused man's writings of his "crimes" and Kazue's own journals (after her death). All the journals were given to UN after the murders and part of her "showing" to "us" what she knows. There are other characters who influence the plot, as well.
It is a bizarre book, in a good way. At first, going through UN's part of the story I was impressed by how unflinchingly honest she was about herself, even if she was manipulative and malicious. She made no excuse for it. However, as time went on, I started to doubt whether UN was as self-aware or truthful as she seemed to be. The characters become more desperate, pathetic and chilling. It also made me wonder who I was most alike, if anybody. I have no idea.
This book belongs on the “Psychology” shelf because it really does make one try to find the motives behind the characters’ actions and ponder one own’s morality, as a review states. Or perhaps not one’s morality, but what morality is in the first place. Where the line is drawn, if a line can be drawn in the first place. The characters can be seen as completely out of touch with reality, or too principled they can’t compromise on anything or frightening. Characters either seem unable to see past what they’re born into and spend so much time yearning for what they wish could be they fall to really low depths, or they aspire so hard to be what they may not be able to achieve they fall, too. I don’t know who to believe or what to believe, sometimes.
“Society/Culture” because it draws a lot from Japanese and Chinese society to explain why/how the characters are like. The competitiveness and elite-ness in the Q High School for Young Women makes me glad I never attended such a place. The High School is part of the entire Q system, where one can join from elementary school and go all the way up to university. Those who have joined since elementary are part of the “insiders” circle and those who just join in High School are seem as “uncool” and can never be part of the “insiders” circle, though they can be “orbiters.” Some girls try so hard to fit in, or lie where they live so they can seem more affluent. Then there’s how things “work” in the workplace. And women’s role in society and how to hold “power.” A lot of things I don’t agree with, some I do sometimes.
“Mystery-Crime” because it is what the story starts with – two murders years apart. That is how we are introduced to UN. Even at the end I’m unclear about who killed one of the women.
“Foreign/Translated lit” because it is work of Japanese by Natsuo Kirino translated into English by Rebecca Copeland.
I gave this book 5-stars because it is thought-provoking and well-written/well-translated. :P It’s probably not one I would reread in a moment of vulnerability/low self-esteem but a book I can’t forget ever.
There are some quotes I really liked from the book, but I didn't want this to be longer than it already is. Here is a link to them