Author: Ryu Murakami
Publisher: Bloomsbury publishing
Publication Year: 2009
Translator: Ralph McCarthy
Language: English
Format: ebook
Pages: 192
It's just before New Year, and Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's nightlife. But Frank's behaviour is so odd that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: his client may in fact have murderous desires. Although Kenji is far from innocent himself, he unwillingly descends with Frank into an inferno of evil, from which only his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Jun, can possibly save him.
-----------------------
In the miso soup follows Kenji, a 20-year old who works as a tour guide to Japanese nightlife. He guides foreign tourists through the Japanese red light district. Around New Year's Eve, there's a girl murdered in the area and the police still hasn't caught the one responsible. Meanwhile, an unusual American named Frank booked Kenji's service to guide him for three nights around New Year. At first Kenji did his job as usual but Frank showed such unusual behaviors that creeped him out he started to suspect that Frank is the one who murdered the girl.
Ryu Murakami is one of the most popular Japanese authors but this is actually the first time I read his work. I didn’t know what to expect. However, I’ve read many works of Japanese authors so I kind of used to their style of writing. Especially one genre called iyamisu (which literally translates to eww mystery) and this book is giving me that vibe.
This book has a slow build up. It starts slow with an introduction to Kenji, Frank, and the red light district where most of the events in this book take place. Then weird things start to happen adding up to Kenji’s suspicion. It is so subtle which I love. It’s the little things that might look like nothing but it creeps on you slowly making you feel uncomfortable. The tension keeps building up until one scene in which all the crazy things happened. Things that shocked me. I mean I read a lot of gore books about murders, I watched movies about serial killers and whatnot but never I feel as disgusted as I was when I was reading this book. On that note, fair warning for you who don’t feel comfortable with gore because it’s explicit. But after the crazy stuff, the pace slows down again and just plummets down.
Touching it gave me the creeps, and it was fastened to the metal door as if with glue. I had to scrape it off with my fingernail, leaving dark stain on the door. I tossed it away, into the bushes beyond the stairs. My heart was pounding like crazy. I felt ill but tried not to let on.
I think aside of being a crime mystery book, this book is also a character study. Kenji often observes Frank and compares his behaviour as an American to how most Japanese people behave. It’s interesting to see Kenji’s observation of people around him. He also likes to observe Japanese people whom he met at the red light district and criticizes them. He often looks down on them but sometimes seeing himself in them because after all his job capitalizes on the red light district too.
Kenji is not a likeable character. Most people would find it hard to relate to him. He has this ‘whatever’ attitude and can be ignorant at times. His reaction in the end and his decision after learning the truth will bother a lot of readers. It bothers me too but I find most protagonists in Japanese literature have similar attitude as Kenji so it doesn’t surprise me somehow. Yet, Kenji’s girlfriend Jun is a character that I like from this book. She doesn’t appear much in this book but as a high school student, she is the most sensible. To me, her character kind of balances Kenji’s personality.
All in all, in the miso soup is not an easy read. But the thrill and the mystery will leave you wanting more if you’re comfortable with all the explicit stuffs. If you enjoy reading books written by Kanae Minato, Keigo Higashino, and Natsuo Kirino I think you’ll like this one.
There are things people in this country do automatically that foreigners can't understand no matter how hard you try to explain.
No comments :
Post a Comment