"...No: if I convinced myself of something then I certainly existed. But there is a deceiver of supreme power and cunning who is deliberately and constantly deceiving me. In that case I too undoubtedly exist, if he is deceiving me; and let him deceive me as much as he can, he will never bring it about that I am nothing so long as I think that I am something. So after considering everything very thoroughly, I must finally conclude that this proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind...Thinking? At last I have discovered it - thought; this alone is inseparable from me. I am, I exist - that is certain. But for how long? For as long as I am thinking. For it could be that were I totally to cease from thinking, I should totally cease to exist...I am a thinking thing."
René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy -
Second Meditation
The NYLS Book Review - Fiction
Grotesque
Author: Natsuo Kirino
ISBN: 1400044944
Format: Paperback, 464pp
Pub. Date: March 2007
Publisher: Knopf Publishing
Review:
Recently, in a coffee shop near my home, I overheard one teenage boy intimating to another that if he were to ever marry it would not be to an American woman but a Japanese one because, “… they’re pretty, submissive, and just plain happy to be women.” Noting that more than a few eyelids batted at this exclamation, I wondered how these American teenagers happened upon their conclusions.
Kirino’s Grotesque is a tale of two sisters growing up in Japan. Yuriko, the youngest of the pair, lacks the mental acumen enjoyed by her older sister. However, in magnificent contrast to her elder sibling, Yuriko possesses a physical beauty so profound and holistically perfect she’s considered by many to be “unnatural”. Sibling rivalry comes to a head when a biology instructor at the prestigious Q High School for Young Women (the same school the elder sister immersed herself in study in order to pass its entrance exams) pulls strings to have Yuriko admitted so he may observe “…what happens when a mutant member of a species is introduced into a population”. Needless to say, this expands sibling conflict and upsets the tenuous balance between “the insiders” – those who are beautiful, wealthy, popular, and cool – and everyone else: “the outsiders”. This, of course, is what transpires on the novel’s surface. Beneath, the message is much grimmer.
Grotesque is an intriguing work. In it Kirino casts a wary eye on what could be ostensibly viewed as the fundamental cause of many of the ailments found in Japanese society today: the “intensification of individuation [resulting from] being trapped within the same social community”. In this work characters with promising futures select paths which lead to their demise. Yuriko and Kazue, two female protagonists who attended the elite Q School, embrace prostitution throughout their lives. Kazue feels empowered by the sense of freedom she derives from “selling” her body to men and remarks to this in her journals. Mitsuru, another character which graduates the Q School system and continues on to become a physician, joins a cult and is incarcerated after the group engages in numerous terrorist acts. The desire to feel something – anything – seems to be the motivating force behind the destructive decisions these three characters make. It should be noted that neither of these three were ever actually “insiders” though Yuriko and Mitsuru were granted temporary passes. Is Kirino suggesting something by this? Perhaps. Perhaps not. In attempting to explain the strange synergy that exists between social pecking order, individual identity, and one’s place in the Japanese corporate hierarchy, Kazue puts it best when her “customer” terminates their relationship due to his pending retirement. She asks, “If a man has a retirement age in the corporate world, then should he also retire from buying prostitutes?”
Grotesque is a work which invites discussion. Readers seeking to peek into the envelope that contains Japanese social consciousness may very well find more than they bargained for in Kirino’s hand. It’s about time. Also, gratuitous formula sex is conspicuously absent from this book. Again, it’s about time. Kirino’s placement on the list of consequential modern authors is secure.
© Joel Glenn, Book Critic –The NYLS Book Review, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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