NOTA |
()(Translated by Ralph McCarthy^@p¶Å C¥U¥~\X[v^@It is just before New YearLs.^@Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of TokyoLs sleazy nightlife on three successive evenings. But FrankLs behavior is so strange that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion : that his new client is in fact the serial killer currently terrorizing the city.^@It isnLt until the second night, however, in a scene that will shock you and make you laugh and make you hate yourself for laughing, that Kenji learns exactly how much he has to fear and how irrevocably his encounter with this great white whale of an American will change his life.^@KenjiLs intimate knowledge of TokyoLs sex industry, his thoughtful observations and wisecracks about the emptiness and hypocrisy of contemporary Japan, and his insights into the shockingly widespread phenomena of Lcompensated datingL and Lselling itL among Japanese schoolgirls, give us plenty to think about on every page. Kenji is our likable, if far from innocent, guide to the inferno of violence and evil into which he unwillingly descends --and from which only Jun, his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, can possibly save him ...^@Renaissance man for the postmodern age, Ryu Murakami has played drums for a rock group, made movies (including LTokyo DecadenceL), and hosted a TV talk show. While he was still a student, his first novel was awarded his countryLs most coveted literary prize and sold over one million copies. This appeared in English as LAlmost Transparent BlueL, and has since been followed by the comic novel L69L and LCoin Locker BabiesL, which The Washington Post called La knockout ... a great big pulsating parable.L Now, LIn the Miso SoupL will give readers a further taste of the incredibly agile imagination that has won him a huge following in Japan. Ralph McCarthy is the translator of L69L by Ryu Murakami and two collections of stories by Osamu Dazai --LSelf PortraitsL and LBlue BambooL.) |