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Translator Rebecca Copeland
Harvill Secker/Random House, March 2007
Reviewed by Kerrie Smith
Thriller
Yuriko Hirakata, the younger of two daughters born to a mixed marriage, is
one of two middle-aged prostitutes murdered in Tokyo nearly two years
apart. The older Hirakata daughter takes after her mother, short dumpy
Japanese, although she has her father's eyes and aquiline nose. Yuriko,
the younger daughter, is strikingly beautiful and catches the eyes of
everyone. Yuriko's elder sister gains entrance to an exclusive secondary
school and then university, but the family goes to live in Switzerland
leaving her behind with her maternal grandfather. Yuriko returns to Japan,
becomes a prostitute, and twenty years later, is raped and killed. The
second of the dead prostitutes, Kazue Sato, is an acquaintance from school
days, a university graduate, working at a high level in an engineering
firm. Still a virgin at thirty, she seeks adventure and satisfaction
through prostitution.
Yuriko's older sister constantly puzzles over how her parents could have
produced a child as beautiful as Yuriko, at the same time as a child as
plain, even ugly, as herself. One of the peculiarities of this book is
that we never learn the name of the elder Hirata daughter. Her life is
lived in Yuriko's shadow and as a result she becomes bitter, seeing
herself as Yuriko's negative image.
GROTESQUE in written mainly in first person, and very largely using the
voice of Yuriko's older sister. The novel begins as if it is a mystery but
there is eventually little mystery about who killed both Yuriko and Kazue.
The book is broken into eight major sections, and we read various accounts
from the older sister, journals kept by both Yuriko, and Kazue, an account
written by the murderer, and then a final few pages that attempts to draw
everything together.
The older sister confides in us, the reader - 'what exactly is it that I
want you to understand?' - and even then we are not sure, and neither is
she. This is a long, densely written work. The style is almost
conversational, no matter who the narrator is. It is not a mystery, and
I'm not sure I would even call it a thriller. It is a very rich canvas
with a few focal points - what it is like to be a 'half'; what success in
climbing the Japanese social ladder is based on; the various forms that
bullying can take; and the roles played by pressures and illusions.
GROTESQUE is also a translation from Japanese into American English. I'm
not sure this is going to be a popular read for Western readers. It is
very long (460pp) and much of it is taken up with exploration of the
characters and the theme of alienation, of being an outsider. How did I
feel about it? I wanted to finish it, but I kept looking for that twist in
the tail that never came. I recognise however that Kirino is making an
important, even daring, social comment on Japanese society. Did I enjoy
reading GROTESQUE? I'm not sure whether enjoy is the right word, but I
think it will be a book that people will read again and again.
I first became acquainted with the work of Japanese writer Natsuo Kirino
when I read her first novel to be translated into English, OUT. Well known
in Japan, she is the winner of many awards, and her work has been
translated into a variety of languages. OUT was nominated for an Edgar
Award.
March 2007 review originally published on Murder and Mayhem
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