Quote: Joe Mama said: Let me know how that is, Harley. I've seen it in bookstores, have had it recommended to my by Amazon, and have come oh-so-close to buying it. If you give it a good review after finishing it, I'll buy it.
Heya Joe!
Okaybee, here's the dealio. It's a solid read and I enjoyed it overall, though I would be interested in discussing the fates of the four protagonists here and what it says about how women are viewed in Japanese society. (But I digress.) Before I get into this though, I am just letting you know that what I tell you (or anyone who read this) is nothing that you wouldn't find in the summary on the back of the book cover, so no bitching that I spoiled the story or something, kay?
The story focuses on four women who, due to their unfortunate circumstances, work together in a non-descript factory job making boxed lunches during the night shift. One of the women snaps one night and kills her cheating husband. That's not really the big issue here though, as the murder itself only takes up two paragraphs in the entire book. The interesting part of this story is how this young, pretty mother enlists her co-workers into helping her dispose of the body and cover-up the crime. Part of the shock is how brutal and gory a manner the cover-up is done and how calcuating and manipulative each woman becomes in the aftermath in order to stay a step ahead of the police - and as it turns out, the yakuza as well.
The heart of this story lies in Kirino's ability to make her characters sympathetic, despite the horror of their actions. The ring leader in the cover-up, is Masako, who really is the soul of this book. Like each the other women, she is seeking an "out" of her sad and pathetic existence (hence the title), but it takes an atrocity of this magnitude to shake each of them out of their docile acceptance of their respective situations.
Kirino gives us a chilling look at how the yakuza works; the tension of trying to outsmart the police, and an obsessed crime boss both who are trying to either trap or kill these four; and the psychological effects and rationalizations that each woman comes up with in order to cope with what she has done. In the end the book is more about the desperate situations that drove these four to commit such extreme actions and and IMHO is also a commentary on the place that women have in Japanese society.
I hope this helps, without having given away too much of the details. If you read it, let me know what you think.
Dear, sweet Harley Kwink...I'm madly in love with you. Marry me! We can go to Canadia. Or Boston or something. It'll be grand...You know the cookies are a given. They are ALWAYS a given. You could dump me tomorrow and you'd still get the cookies. Boston..shit, wherever dyke weddings were legalized. And where better to rub their little piggie noses in how bad they suck than right on their doorstep? What are they gonna do? Be jealous of you? Stare furiously at your tah-tahs? Not willingly give you cookies, but instead begrudgingly give you their cookies? Woman, time to wake up to the powers you wield - Uschi
