Product Description

Two prostitutes have been murdered in Tokyo. Yuriko had been working as a prostitute all her adult life, starting while still at school, where her stunning beauty compensated for what she lacked in intellect and commanded attention from older men. Kazue worked for a blue-chip company and had good career prospects, but was unpopular with colleagues and felt isolated. She chose to walk the streets at night where she hoped to get noticed. Twenty years previously, both women were educated at an elite school for young ladies, and both exhibited exceptional promise prior to their brutal , unnecessary deaths. How and why did this tragedy occur? With narration from Yuriko's embittered, unattractive sister and through the girls' journals and diaries Kirino allows their shocking story to unfurl. As with "Out", "Grotesque" gets under the skin, and Kirino's analysis of the female psyche grips the reader. The extreme need to succeed, and the vicious desire to be accepted in the bewildering environment of modern life is explored here with acute and chilling insight. "Grotesque" is a masterful and haunting achievement.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #324152 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

The Times
'Kirino's answers are fascinating feminist propositions, amazingly
well suited the chill horror of the crime novel'

Independent on Sunday
`One of the great novels of 1940s Spain...Nada can now be enjoyed
in Edith Grossman's excellent new translation'

Saturday Telegraph, Benjamin Secher
'a brilliant, subversive character study...a triumph'

Customer Reviews

Stimulating and Intelligent...
This is the long awaited second novel from Kirino to be translated into English. This tells a complex stories of emotions and rivalries between a number of characters. It is not a quick read and is quite absorbing. Having read the predecessor to this one I can recommend both, although be aware both books are poles apart.

The story has been outlined by other reviewers, this book is not lighthearted but id fascinating in a dark and malevolent way.

"I want to be number one. I want to be respected. I want to be someone whom everyone notices."
The Japanese describe their own culture by saying, "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down," and that aphorism forms the underpinning of this consummately Japanese novel. The four speakers of the novel, three of them women and one of them a foreign-born man, are all "nails" that "stick up" in Tokyo. They need to be recognized for who they are, but they have failed to find even minimal success in the culture in which they live and work. For the women, there's an additional barrier to personal happiness--"Women are merely commodities for men to possess." To be successful in this world, a woman needs to be cooperative and submissive.

Two of the "nails" trying to avoid being "hammered down" in this odd but utterly fascinating novel are prostitutes. Another is the pathologically jealous older sister of one of the prostitutes, and one is an illegal Chinese national who murdered one or both of the prostitutes--not the typical cast of characters for a novel written by a Japanese author and published for an English-speaking audience. Revealing aspects of Japanese society usually kept hidden, the novel is told by characters who feel they have little to lose, and it is dark, often raw, and sometimes sexually explicit.

The four characters tell their own stories, leading up to the murders of the two prostitutes and their immediate aftermath--the trial of the murderer. An unnamed speaker, the studious sister of "diabolically beautiful" prostitute Yuriko Hirata, describes her own efforts to succeed in school. Her inability to form friendships, somewhat colored by her abuse at home, her pathological hatred for her sister, and her resentment of students whose success at the school is far greater than her own, make her a frustrating and unlikable main character. Her sister, Yuriko, the next speaker, describes how she became a prostitute as a schoolgirl, and how she has used her beauty to control men around her through seduction.

Zhang, the next speaker, admits that he killed Yuriko Hirata, and describes the poverty-stricken life he led in rural China, where his family lived in a cave. The reader develops some admiration for his determination and resourcefulness, even as he is telling about his crimes, before and after he reached Japan illegally. The final speaker is Kazue Sato, the second prostitute, and (to me) the most interesting character in the novel. An extremely hard worker, she has graduated from an "elite" university, and gained a full-time job at a "high-ranked" business. As job and family pressures grow, she becomes frustrated and angry, until at age thirty, she "liberates" herself from her traditional role, and becomes a prostitute.

Kirino's insights into the psyches of these characters, combined with her analysis of her own culture, create an unusual novel, hard to put down. Some aspects are a bit awkward and the novel might have benefited from pruning, but the novel provides a rare look at some of the less attractive aspects of this traditional culture and its people, and its detailed inside views of family, school, and employment are unforgettable. Mary Whipple

"There's hatred and confusion here"
This book really got under my skin. It is a dark, disturbing, often explicit tale of the need to be accepted in modern society and the pressures everyone faces in a class striken, layered society (here focusing on Japan).

It is divided into the journal entries of Yuriko (a beautiful woman whose meaning in life is to be appreciated for her beauty, hence her decent in prostitution)and Kazue (a hard working career who moonlights as a prostitute at night). The journal entries are collected together by Yuriko's older sister following the murders of both Yuriko and Kazue.

Each journal entry and intermediate narration by Yuriko's older sister deals with each of their experiences with remarkable individuality, each voice different from the others. This book shows remarkable characterisation by Kirino. The tale the characters tell is shocking and they revel in their own hatred, insecruity, jealousys, lies and hopes with disarming honesty - this makes their stories very affecting. You are repulsed by their actions and reasons but sympathetic at the same time. This makes Kirino's writing stunning; to sustain this balance among all her characters is amazing. Her writing often overflows with penetrating insight and disturbing images of individuals depraving themselves all to become accepted by society.

"Grotesque" is a very appropriate title for this book. It is a dark, disturbing, challenging novel dealing with unpleasant issues; prostitution, murder, hatred, jealousy and the seedy side of human life.If you are looking for a nice summer read avoid this. However if you are looking for a brilliantly written novel, full of a psychological insight and images that remain with you after you have finished then buy this book now. As I said at the start, "Grotesque" really got under my skin.

Thanks for reading my views

Jonathan