In the Miso Soup

Rating:
Summary: Anxiety
Review: Ryu Murakami has never written about violence, but about the causes of violence - and not direct, ordinary causes, but the underlying psychological tensions in human beings which lead to violence. The psycopath in the novel, Frank, describes violent tendencies in children as the product of anxiety, an attempt to prove that the world will not collapse when some horrible act is perpetrated. 'Anxiety' is certainly a good term to describe the book, or any of Murakami's - every scene vibrates with an eerie strangeness, and human relations take unexpected turns. In the end, the product is somewhat mystifying, but provides a good read and ample food for thought. What it does best is pair images of extreme innocence and extreme violence, produce alternate reactions of sympathy and disgust, and force a reader to suspend all kinds of belief and judgement until the page-turner narrative is over. Still, what it isn't is a thriller, a character study, or a book with any clear message. The character of Frank could be taken to represent many things - the destructive effect of confused intentions on an insular culture, or a human loneliness common to both this American and the Japanese protagonist, or any misfit lashing out against a restrictive society. In any case, it's one of the most fascinating contemporary novels I've discovered.


Rating:
Summary: 5 Stars!
Review: Tight, well-written thriller that takes you into the underworld of the sex industry in Shinjuku, Tokyo through the eyes of a tourist guide who gets involved with a psychopathic visitor. Beware of the extremely graphic climax about 2/3s of the way through, not for the faint-of-heart, but if you can handle it, an excellent read.

Rating:
Summary: An imaginative, wry and symbolic tale.
Review: While I was familiar with Miike's movie "Audition" for which Ryu Murakami wrote the screen play, this book was my first encounter with a novel by this writer. "In the Miso Soup" is a curious mixture of a "Tokyo chainsaw massacre" type horror book and a psychological thriller. In addition, and more importantly, it is a novel in which the naive Japanese guide Kenji and the American Psycho Frank are symbol's in the author's vision of their respective birth countries and their interactions.

Kenji guides American tourists through the Kabuki-cho red light district of Tokyo. An American, who calls himself Frank -by itself an interesting choice of names, since honest he isn't- hires Kenji for the final three days of the year. On the first night which is described in the first of the books three chapters/sections, Frank gets more and more under Kenji's skin. He picks up many signals that Frank is not that happy-go-lucky typical American that he is used to, and develops poorly founded suspicions that his client may be a serial killer, currently striking the city.

In the second chapter the tour of the "erotic wasteland" continues. With an ever increasing tension developing in the background, Murakami does an Japanese Hopper in describing the desolation on the local night owls, decries the emptiness of current Japanese society and hints at a link between the dead of the Japanese spirit and the American counter attack on the homeland during the Second World War. A link that has been thoroughly covered in works as widely divergent as Yoshimura's "One man's justice" to Michael Douglas vehicle "Black Rain". I don't know whether this Murakami is familiar with Gaddis' "Recognitions", but he does take the concept of that book's party scene to the nth bloody degree. While this scene is comically over the top -even Mel Gibson couldn't have done it any better- the writer uses it later to great effect in exploring Kenji's passivity throughout and after the ordeal.

In the final chapter Kenji spends the night with Frank continually fearing for his life and hears the latter's life story. While Frank's description of numerous suicide attempts is in agreement with the many wrist scars that the Japanese guide observes and the story corresponds with Kenji's theory that people like Frank have been hollowed out over time, it is up to the reader to give any credence to the American's tales. The novel ends by both men attending the traditional bell ringing aimed at cleansing the soul for the new year.

Both in its bleak description of contemporary (Japanese) life and detailed analysis of the Zeigeist in the land of the rising sun, its highly effective build up of anxiety in the first half of the book, and in the obvious symbolism behind the interaction between the naïve Japanese Kenji and the murderous American Frank, this is a highly imaginative and thought provoking book. The result makes me think of what might have been if Reiner Fassbinder had decided to shoot an uncharacteristically smart Stephen King script in Tokyo.

This book will not please everybody, as the various preceding reviews indicate. I think that those who decried that this book "had no ending" failed to pick up on the novel's clearly spelled out symbolism and/or would benefit form more rooting in contemporary Japanese literature. Yet, for all those who have an open mind and are not grossed out by a little gore -not even close to 1 percent of a typical DeSade novel- this may be an interesting choice.


Rating:
Summary: Exciting and thought provoking
Review: While not usually a fan of the "slash and trash" genre, Murakami's newest gives a reason to explore the subject of the serial killer. Examining both Japanese and American stereotypes and ideosyncracies, the book gives a fascinating portrayal of the "man on the edge". The book moves quickly and was over way before I was ready for it to end. While not his best work, this was worth waiting for. In many ways I can see this as "American Psycho" done correctly. The violence is a little over the top in some sections, but in a kind of quirky style, so not really offensive. Nice translation, no real issues there.

Rating:
Summary: Exciting and thought provoking
Review: While not usually a fan of the "slash and trash" genre, Murakami's newest gives a reason to explore the subject of the serial killer. Examining both Japanese and American stereotypes and ideosyncracies, the book gives a fascinating portrayal of the "man on the edge". The book moves quickly and was over way before I was ready for it to end. While not his best work, this was worth waiting for. In many ways I can see this as "American Psycho" done correctly. The violence is a little over the top in some sections, but in a kind of quirky style, so not really offensive. Nice translation, no real issues there.