REAL WORLD
Natsuo Kirino
Knopf
Thriller
ISBN: 9780307267573
"Feminist noir" is the term most often used to describe Japanese author Natsuo Kirino's dark and violent yet surprisingly insightful novels. Kirino first burst onto the English-language scene with OUT, a compelling work of fiction about a group of women who conspire to murder one of their husbands and then cover it up. GROTESQUE, his second novel to be published in English, focused on two murders of prostitutes, as well as on the slain women's history and past relationships. Although both are sometimes startlingly graphic in their portrayal of violence, and are compelling stories, reducing these books to their murder plots would mean only scratching the surface of what they're actually about.
Kirino's third novel to be published in the U.S., REAL WORLD, is no exception. Although the plot could probably be summarized in a sentence or two, and although that plot could sound like the basis for a really bad teenage thriller movie, his deft and perceptive social observation and commentary lift the book from the world of the grotesque into the realm of ideas.
REAL WORLD, like its predecessors, begins with a murder. This time, it's the murder of a mother by her teenaged son, known as Worm. Worm, like all the young characters in the book, is privileged, going to a good school and attending "cram school" during the summer to ensure that he doesn't fall behind in attempts to make it into the best university. The murder is overheard by Worm's neighbor, Toshi, a responsible girl and the center of her small group of friends.
In his escape, Worm steals Toshi's bicycle as well as her cell phone, subsequently using its address book to connect with Toshi's friends: Yuzan, a closet lesbian struggling to define her identity; Terauchi, a thoughtful girl and a good student who Worm enlists to write his "manifesto"; and Kirarin, a beautiful young lady whose night life as a reckless wild child is a secret even from her friends. In turn, each girl --- as well as Worm himself --- reveals hidden motivations, societal and familial pressures, and personal histories that lead each to make startling, and sometimes tragic, decisions.
The novel's title hints at one of its major themes --- the notion of authenticity, of creating an individual, meaningful self when one's society is focused above all on conformity as well as on scholastic and financial success. Once word of the murder gets out, Worm becomes an underground online hero, not because he killed his mother per se, but because this successful student from a good home found a way to escape from the life that had seemed pre-ordained for him.
Likewise, each of Worm's contacts from Toshi's phone is striving --- with various degrees of success --- to escape from the expected, often by putting up boundaries or masks, by creating an equally inauthentic "weapon," as Terauchi reflects: "My weapon is that I can hide my feelings and say something stupid to cover them up. Toshi's weapon is her made-up name, Ninna Hori, for Kirarin, it's always pretending to be cheerful. Yuzan's the only one who painfully exposes herself to the world."
The elusive nature of the "real," the authentic, is just one of the complicated ideas that gives this novel its real backbone, its philosophical and emotional heft. Sure, it's a compelling story that ends with a tragic convergence of events, but it's also an exploration of four distinct female "types," an exposé of teenage culture in Japan and an insightful glimpse into Japanese culture in general. This combination of elements will both fascinate and resonate with Western readers, who will certainly be clamoring to have access to even more of Natsuo Kirino's electrifying, intelligent noir novels.
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
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