Out: Natsuo Kirino

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What is the significance of the novel’s title? In addition to escaping detection, how does the need to get out apply to Masako and the others? Which of the characters succeeds? About this Author Mina Qiao, Women in the Maze – Space and Gender in Kirino Natsuo's Writings. Münchner Schriftenreihe Japanforschung. Projekt Verlag. 2019. After completing her law degree, Kirino worked in various fields before becoming a fictional writer; including scheduling and organizing films to be shown in a movie theater, and working as an editor and writer for a magazine publication. She got married to her present husband when she turned twenty-four, and began writing professionally, after giving birth to her daughter, at age thirty. However, it was not until Kirino was forty-one that she made her major debut. Since then, she has written thirteen full-length novels and three volumes of collective short stories, which are highly acclaimed for her intriguingly intelligent plot development and character portrayal, and her unique perspective of Japanese society after the collapse of the economic bubble. I did not care for the initial police investigation. One of the detectives connected some dots that would have been a stretch with the information that he had at the time.

Condannate a una vita in secondo piano, rinchiuse negli ambienti domestici, incatenate alla cura dei familiari, dipendenti dal denaro di un padre o di un marito, instupidite da giornate sempre uguali, e alla fine spente come lumicini dimenticati nei cimiteri o perse in giostrine di inutili cattiverie o scivolate nell’abisso della follia. Holy shit, and what about the extremely lazy way the Portuguese language was handled? Now, I don't know if the author is to blame for this, but the translator definitely is, and CERTAINLY the asshole who "edited" this. Out descends beneath the genre’s foundation to provide a remarkable series of insights into the forces that drive the charnel house of a postindustrial culture.”– American Book Review

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I enjoyed the dark, bleak storyline which involves nightshifts at a creepy boxed lunch factory. The plot involves human dismemberment, lots of it. The last body-chop brought with it a particularly fun twist. Tokyo Island (original title: Tōkyō-jima), trans. Philip Gabriel ( Granta, No.110, 2010 Spring, p.31-50) Gurotesuku (Tokyo: Bungei Shunju, 2003); English translation by Rebecca L. Copeland as Grotesque (New York: Knopf, 2007) OUT got my heart beating this year... The tone of the novel, flat and chill, fits its subject to perfection, and admiration for Kirino grows all the way Rose Tremain, Daily Telegraph

The story never gets predictable and keeps you guessing until the end. I also like how it’s written from different perspectives, it gives a little insight into their mind and past experience. Apart from that, if you’re planning to read this book then you should know it’s definitely not for everyone as there are graphic violence scenes at places. Otherwise, it’s a well-written thriller surrounding crime but focused mostly on ramifications of it on the people involved in the crime. Four Japanese women - Masako, Yayoi, Yoshie and Kuniko - work the night shift together at a factory making boxed lunches. Yayoi's husband, Yamamoto, is drunk and violent, and obsessed with an escort girl named Anna, who works at a club run by psychopathic gangster Satake. Yamamoto has also lost all the couple's savings playing baccarat at Satake's club. One night Satake beats Yamamoto up and throws him out. When Yamamoto gets home, his wife strangles him with his own belt. She confides in her friends, and they, led by Masako, agree to take Yamamoto's body, cut it up and dispose of it in garbage bags dispersed around Tokyo. The Floating Forest (original title: Ukishima no Mori), trans. Jonathan W. Lawless ( Digital Geishas and Talking Frogs: The Best 21st Century Short Stories from Japan, Cheng & Tsui Company, 2011)

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The stalkers, domestic abusers, rapists, killers, etc, all get justifications from the women themselves and from the author's narration. They get forgiveness, they get acceptance. It's disgusting. Meanwhile the self-defense killing of Kenji gets a lot of condemnation from all sides. There is also a LOT of rape-as-sexual-fantasy here. Two of the four protagonists have rape fantasies, one is even shown to enjoy her own rape. Kirino began her writing career in 1984, when she started composing novels in the romantic genre. [6] However, these types of novels were not popular in Japan, so she found it difficult to make a living while writing them. [6] She also did not have a passion for writing romance novels and wanted to concentrate on works focusing on the psychological aspect of crimes. [6] She then turned her focus towards writing mystery novels in the early 1990s. [6] To date, she has written several short story collections and many novels, [7] and is now one of Japan's most popular writers. [8]