Grotesque (Vintage International)

Grotesque (Vintage International)
by Natsuo Kirino

Grotesque (Vintage International)
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Book Summary Information

Author: Natsuo Kirino
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-02-12
ISBN: 1400096596
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: Vintage

Book Reviews of Grotesque (Vintage International)

Book Review: Spoiled by last section
Summary: 3 Stars

A long book, written in several autobiographical sections narrating the action from contradictory points of view. It's an innovative and engaging structure.

For me, this novel had three distinct parts.

(1) commentary on Japanese treatment of women as students and professionals, with a focus on treatment of outcasts - articulate and plausible, very well-done,

(2) the story of a set of girls growing into woman and finding their profession - somewhat less plausible, as many of the characters are more extreme in one way or another than most people I know, but still engaging and full of surprises, and

(3) the decline and demise of two characters who lost their way - grotesque, implausible, and infused with a hopeless, violent, and self-destructive philosophy, which had no redeeming appeal to me.

I can't recommend this book due to the bizarre musings and surreal, degrading situations in its last 50 or so pages. I wonder just how beyond-the-pale was the section that other reviews here mention as being excised in translation must have been.

Summary of Grotesque (Vintage International)

Life at the prestigious Q High School for Girls in Tokyo exists on a precise social axis: a world of insiders and outsiders, of haves and have-nots. Beautiful Yuriko and her unpopular, unnamed sister exist in different spheres; the hopelessly awkward Kazue Sato floats around among them, trying to fit in.Years later, Yuriko and Kazue are dead - both have become prostitutes and both have been brutally murdered.

Natsuo Kirino, celebrated author of Out, seamlessly weaves together the stories of these women's struggles within the conventions and restrictions of Japanese society. At once a psychological investigation of the pressures facing Japanese women and a classic work of noir fiction, Grotesque is a brilliantly twisted novel of ambition, desire, beauty, cruelty, and identity by one of our most electrifying writers.

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