In the Miso Soup [Kindle Edition]

What at a glance appears to be a fairly standard concept for a novel - is our protagonists client the serial killer at large? - is taken in a very different direction by the time the story ends. It's a direction that I can only imagine a Japanese author taking it: disturbing but poignant, and maybe a little frustrating in its ambiguity - though it's the frustrating things that are ultimately most rewarding. Of course only a Japanese author could have written it because the novel is essentially about the closed nature of Japan's society: alienating to foreigners and in a state of self-denial.

I'm usually a slow reader but this novel hooked me in from the start and I finished it in less than 24 hours. The writing style is much more fluid and rich than other Japanese novels I've read, such as Haruki Murakami's, though I'm never sure exactly how much of that is down to the translator rather than the original author. The author does, however, clearly have excellent ability when it comes to the pacing. Perhaps around the last third of the novel it loses its narrative drive, but the change to a slower, more thoughtful style is what gives the book its unique edge, taking it from being simply a gripping read to a novel that leaves a lasting impression and screams out to be read again.

This is the first Ryu Murakami book I have read, though I am more familiar with the other, equally surreal Murakami (Haruki). Once you have read the backcover and then onto first page you instantly find yourself engrossed in this story as it unfolds...

You find yourself in a Tokyo beyond the sushi, anime and hi-tech gadgets - the reader is taken, as if almost on a tour of the red-light districts vibrant, diverse and perverse night-life. But what is central of course are the two main characters - a local night life tourist guide and a fat American tourist.

As the story progresses, it perpetuates the guide's paranoia and eventual fear of this strange foreigner - something about him just doesn't seem right as you will discover the more you read on.

What I found most interesting was the author's brave yet honest, and in many ways justifiable criticism of how - like many nations- are loosing their own cultural heritage and identity in favour of the globally appealing Americanism.

Murakami paints a picture of a highly modern people, more so than the West - yet utterly confused about who they are - and what it means to be Japanese - to such extents that some foreign characters know more about the traditions and culture of the locals than the locals themselves.

Paradoxically, at one point a Japanese character seems to know more about a certain thing or too about American culture than our American tourist.

As many other reviewers and many others who have read the book will tell you - there is "that" one scene - it will stay in your mind perhaps longer than any other aspect of the story, message or plot, etc - I am not sure if this is the intention of the author but it is truly unforgettable.

It truly was one of- if not the most gruesome, explicitly detailed and violent scenes I have ever read depicted in prose. Ashamedly, however you find yourself still carrying on reading with a sort of frown on your face reflecting the natural distaste and disgust at what you are reading. The scene is not even that long - yet it feels incredibly long - even for the character as it were. Though I must say, it surely must require some talent to come up with this - though it does make you question the goings on of the mind that produces such flowery imagery.

One disappointment though, is that toward the end the pace and excitement starts to slow - of course this is because it is drawing to its close - however it starts to take on a whole different tone, focussing more on the life behind this American tourist - in an attempt to explain why he is - like he is. Though I wasn't too convinced and a little disappointed there was no "twist" that would completely knock you off balance from where you thought the plot was taking you. The ending is rather anti-climactic with no real closure- though with a lot to reflect upon about culture and identity.

Murakami wrote the screenplay for the deeply nasty film "Audition".

I have to say that I didn't know this when I first read this book, which I picked up on the strength of one of his other books "Coin locker Babies" (which I picked up in mistake for a Haruki Murakami novel... a happy error!).

This book is every bit as nasty.

I will give nothing away, except to say that the book gives a completely convincing account of contemporary Tokyo and the place of the outsider within it, be that outsider foreign or one of the many "underclass" who seem to wander the streets of the city, and that once you have started it, you will be reading non-stop to the end.