The murderer, a Chinese labourer called Zhang, has already been arrested and is about to go on trial. There is not much focus, however, on finding out who killed them. The story revolves around the murder of two prostitutes in Tokyo less than a year apart. The comparison with Kurosawa’s Rashomon is perhaps inevitable, and, just like in the film, there are no clear answers as to whose account of events is to be trusted or whether the truth will ever be fully known. It follows none of the conventions of the genre, although it certainly shows a bleak outlook on life as a Japanese woman, so perhaps it could be called a noir of sorts. The novel is structured in eight parts and features four narrators, all equally unreliable. This has been advertised as a crime novel, but crime fiction lovers will barely recognise it as such. ‘Grotesque’ is more challenging in that respect, because the characters are uniformly unlikable. However, although the lives of the four women working at a bento factory seemed grim and cheerless, that novel was saved by a certain degree of empathy that we could feel for the protagonists. I kicked off with Natsuo Kirino, who impressed me so much with her novel of low-wage drudgery and desperation ‘Out’. Inspired by Bellezza’s Japanese literature challenge and Tony’s January month of J-Lit wonders, I have pledged to read more Japanese literature throughout 2014.
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