Out: A Novel

Author - Natsuo Kirino ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Vintage was reviewed on 22-Oct-2008.

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1) Paperback Book Out: A Novel by Vintage. I enjoyed the rhythm of the book. It gently pulled me into its world and held me secure with its fascinating characters and interesting details. With each page that I turned I wanted to know more. I look forward to enjoying more books by this author in the future.¤

2) Paperback Book Out: A Novel by Vintage. This story of murder, friends, and corruption is highly original, and I highly recommend it. The plots twists every which way right up to the end. The nuanced view of the Japanese working class and criminal class is fascinating.

A surfeit of violence to and torture of women detracted from my enjoyment, but the underlying plot was strong, consistent, and engaging throughout. This book takes a strong stomach.

The portrayal of women´s lot in Japan is dark, with no characters enjoying a balanced or fulfilling family life, as was also the case for the two other books I´ve also read by Natsuo Kirino. No characters escape corruption when possibilities arise.

This tale is noir at its blackest.¤

3) Paperback Book Out: A Novel by Vintage. Natsuo Kirino´s Out was simply captivating. The way she sets up scenes and the pacing of the novel is calculated with brilliance, and her characters are down to earth and believable. Yet, a heinous crime is committed by one of them who murders her own husband, and that is when everything spins out of control. Will her friends be able to save her and cover it up, will they all be arrested, or worse, killed?

The beginning was a little slow, but once the murder happened I could not put the book down. It is so graphic and gruesome, yet somehow real and insightful.¤

4) Paperback Book Out: A Novel by Vintage. This is one you cannot forget.

Powerful in its characters and twisting story. It will stay with you long after you have read the last page and closed the book.¤

5) Paperback Book Out: A Novel by Vintage. Just when you think it can´t get any worse ... it does. This novel is a great example of noir literature. It has the usual noir elements of darkness, despair, hopelessness and betrayal. Layered on top of this noir novel is a very black comedy of gender warfare.

A young mother, living in the Tokyo suburbs and working the night shift at a boxed lunch factory, wants out of her miserable marriage to a philandering and abusive husband. Her solution? Strangle him. Unfortunately, this solution creates a new problem ... a dead body that needs to disappear. Fortunately, this young mother has empathetic lady friends who are equally desperate to get "out" of their own miserable circumstances and are therefore willing to help dispose of the body.

Unfortunately for these ladies, they find that the nightmare has just begun and this one act has pulled them into the "violent underbelly of Japanese society." In usual noir-ish fashion, all does not end well and no solutions are offered to resolve the hostilities between the sexes.

This is not my favorite type of reading, but I thought the story was well done and was an excellent example of noir and black comedy. The translation, by Stephen Snyder, seemed extraordinarily good to me; I never once thought about the fact that I was reading the book in translation.¤

6) Paperback Book Out: A Novel by Vintage. Nothing in Japanese literature prepares us for the stark, tension-filled, plot-driven realism of Natsuo Kirino’s award-winning literary mystery Out.

This mesmerizing novel tells the story of a brutal murder in the staid Tokyo suburbs, as a young mother who works the night shift making boxed lunches strangles her abusive husband and then seeks the help of her coworkers to dispose of the body and cover up her crime. The coolly intelligent Masako emerges as the plot’s ringleader, but quickly discovers that this killing is merely the beginning, as it leads to a terrifying foray into the violent underbelly of Japanese society.

At once a masterpiece of literary suspense and pitch-black comedy of gender warfare, Out is also a moving evocation of the pressures and prejudices that drive women to extreme deeds, and the friendships that bolster them in the aftermath.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 19-Nov-2008, 14000783779781400078370, 710-350-820-771-961-681-8

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