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Review: Out by Natsuo Kirino (1997)
This book was a little more rough and twisted than the last two Japanese crime novels I'd read (The Devotion of Suspect X and Confessions). By that I mean that I felt the crimes were a little more gritty and had less finesse, and that the level of twistedness was a step further and more bold than those other two novels.
I thought the book was interesting, but I don't know that I would necessarily recommend it to someone who was new to Japanese mystery novels.
Spoilers.
Story
The story started off in a way that I would've expected of a crime novel. It set up our characters very well, showing us the ugly parts of their lives that defined them.
Then, it became a thriller, when Satake started going after the women as payback for having him framed. At this point, I was still interested in the story because I was wondering whether the women would get away with their crime.
Near the end, the story became a psychological journey for Masako, as she became acquainted with Satake. This is where the story lost me. It was a tough read because of the rape and violence, but I also didn't understand what about Satake drew Masako to him. Maybe she was fascinated by his attitudes towards violence, as she had discovered that she was beginning to not despise it. I would agree that she understood Satake, but I couldn't understand how she went from understanding to love.
Because of this, I would say that the story was good up until the very end.
Writing
One thing that bothered me during the story was that there wasn't as much sleuthing as I'd have liked. Most characters jumped to the right conclusions without having considered other false leads, which took away some of the intrigue for me.
The police officers guessed that Masako, Yoshie, and Kuniko had helped Yayoi, despite having little to no evidence. Satake had also guessed right away that Yayoi was the actual murderer. I guess that for this story, the point was not how the characters got to their conclusions, but that they did with that information. I can respect that, but it took away some of the fun for me.
As I mentioned, a lot of the writing was crude in that it depicted violence and gore rather explicitly and graphically. The rape scene at the very end especially was a bit shocking for me, especially because the rape ended up with Masako actually liking Satake. I would've understood if Masako had come to understand Satake during the rape, but "liking" was a bit strong.
I was also surprised by how the author depicted the terrible lives of the women. Each of them had their own share of struggles, but I was actually pleased to see how starkly and honestly the author had explained each of their vices and struggles without censoring them or making them more pleasing to read.
Characters
I thought each of the characters were unique and had their own distinctive motivations, character traits, and vices.
Masako Katori
Masako was the main character of the book. Because she was the ringleader of the Kenji disposal operation, and because the book focused on her own psychological journey towards the end of the book.
Masako used to work for a credit union. She was good at her job, but her stubbornness made her unpopular with her coworkers, and the company found an opportunity to push her out despite twenty years of service. That was how she ended up working the night shift at the factory.
As for her home life, she wasn't struggling with finances or abusive relationships, but there was an extreme degree of isolation between her, her husband, and her son. Masako and her husband Yoshiki had stopped sleeping together, and near the end, when Masako asked him if he'd come after her if she disappeared, he said no. It wasn't a shock, but more of a confirmation to Masako that they'd really become strangers. As for Nobuki, he hadn't spoken to Masako in years. He'd dropped out of school, but that was the extent of what Masako knew. Near the end when Masako told Nobuki that he was on his own, he blew up on her. I'll talk more about this in his section. In any case, Masako was extremely isolated, to the point that the only person she could trust was Kazuo, the man who had almost raped her but had instead fallen in love with her. Masako didn't even fully trust her coworkers at the factory despite having cut up a body for and with them.
Masako was a no-nonsense kind of person, which allowed her to handle the disposal of Kenji's body in a very professional manner. The other trait that helped her was probably her social isolation. She hadn't had true emotional connection with anybody for years, so that's why I think it was easier for her not to see the corpses as humans. It's not a surprise that things that help people in their careers and their jobs often hinder them in their personal lives.
Masako admitted that cutting up Kenji's body opened a new door for her. I guess she hadn't realized that she could do something like that and with this new knowledge, she felt that she was becoming more and more detached from normal society. At first, Masako didn't want Yayoi's money. I think this was because she was starting to understand that she was not the kind of person who might've minded this. However, later, Masako took money just as a way to protect herself.
Masako was the first to suspect that the women were being investigated by someone other than the police. This clued us in to the fact that Masako was perhaps the only one who was truly on another level. While Yoshie, Kuniko, and Yayoi were still worrying about home lives and material goods, Masako no longer had any of those attachments and could focus all of her brain power in hunting down Satake. I don't think she would've cared about hunting down Satake if it wasn't for the fact that he was specifically hunting her down.
I understand how Masako would've felt a kinship with Satake. Satake had only felt pleasure once in his life, when he was actively killing another person. Masako hadn't felt sexually aroused in years until she had that erotic dream that was also violent. But I wasn't really sure how the story jumped from understanding, to Masako feeling sad that she killed Satake and instead wanting them to live together. Their relationship thrived on their hatred for one another, so Masako's change of heart didn't make much sense to me. In the end, Masako also went to Satake's gambling parlour in search of some direction in life, but gave up on that and instead decided to head to Brazil as Kazuo had recommended.
In terms of her relationships with other women, I think Masako really only saw Yoshie as competent, but the issue was that Yoshie had a lot more family responsibilities than Masako did. Masako was detached from her husband and her son was a legal adult. Meanwhile, Yoshie had to take care of her mother-in-law, and was constantly being ripped off by her daughters. Masako clearly showed contempt for Kuniko, who was unable to get her spending habits under control. Initially, I think that Masako didn't think much of Yayoi, but she started to hate her a little for how brazen and unappreciative she was getting. I think Masako started to get annoyed that Yayoi thought she was completely in the clear, and wish that she'd be a little smarter and low-key about her newfound freedom and happiness.
Overall, I'd say that Masako was a very practical, stubborn, and emotionless woman. Like Satake, she'd only rediscovered emotion and excitement through violence, but due to her background of being a woman with a family, hadn't had the opportunity to explore that side of her until meeting Satake. Even though Kazuo showed care for her, she didn't want it. By the end, I think she fully accepted that she was better off alone in the world.
Kuniko Jonouchi
I'm pretty sure Kuniko was written to be an annoying character on purpose. She was very materialistic, splurging her money on all sorts of things, even though she knew it couldn't cover up the fact that she lived a life that was far from luxury. In addition to her poor spending habits, Kuniko was not a particularly trustworthy person. Masako and Yoshie hadn't wanted to include Kuniko in their corpse disposal operation because they knew that Kuniko would never be diligent or careful enough, and in the end, they were correct.
Kuniko had a long term partner, but they did not have a good relationship. They probably lived together due to loneliness at first, but at the start of the book, they hadn't had sex for a long time, and I think their habits were starting to grate on each other.
Most of Kuniko's actions in the book boiled down to two things: money and sex. She got involved in the disposal of Kenji's corpse because she needed money and was bothering Masako about it. She then leaked information to Jumonji because he would cancel her debt if she did so. Lastly, she got caught in Satake's trap because she was hoping to have sex with him.
In hindsight, I do think that perhaps Kuniko might've been a bit of a caricature. I haven't met anybody with Kuniko's spending habits, but perhaps Kuniko was an example of how overfixation on money and sex can make one a despicable person.
Yoshie Azuma
Yoshie was a competent worker at the factory, but was very weak in her family life. She was stuck caring for her mother-in-law despite having been treated poorly by the other woman. In addition, her daughters were always tricking her out of money and she'd knowingly let herself get tricked.
I think that Yoshie probably excelled at her job because she couldn't stand up to the people who were bullying her in her personal life. Her job was the only thing she had going for her at the beginning of the book.
After Yoshie got involved with corpse disposal, her finances got a little bit better, but the money kept getting stolen from her two daughters. Yoshie had intended on moving to a better home. By the end of the book, Yoshie's house was apparently on fire. The reader wasn't told what eventually happened, but we can deduce that her mother-in-law likely died in the fire and that Yoshie had no home anymore.
That being said, at that point, Yoshie would have no longer had to care for the mother-in-law that she tolerated, and she likely wouldn't be seeing her daughters ever again. So I think that Yoshie could focus on restarting her life and working for herself only.
I did pity Yoshie because she was so saddled with her family commitments. I also sympathized with her because she likely willingly turned a blind eye to her daughters' thefts because she did still love them a bit. She actually admitted to Masako that she missed Issey a little when she suspected her daughter had taken him away. Unfortunately, Yoshie's family never gave her anything and only took and took.
Yayoi Yamamoto
I thought Yayoi's character was interesting but we didn't get to explore her too much. Yayoi was trapped in an abusive and loveless relationship with her husband. As a young woman, she'd fallen for Kenji's charms, only to find out after they got married that Kenji was far more interested in the chase than he was in her. Because of this, Yayoi definitely felt cheated. She was acknowledged numerous times by many people as being very beautiful, even in her 30s, so of course she'd feel cheated that she'd spent the most beautiful years of her life with a husband who didn't even appreciate her beauty.
The breaking point was when Kenji first assaulted Yayoi, leaving a big bruise on her stomach. That was probably the single event that made Yayoi realize that she actually was in a relationship that was bad for her.
A few days later, Kenji had been kicked out of the gambling and hostess parlours run by Satake, so he'd went home early, which was rare. This gave him and Yayoi and opportunity to actually see each other in the flesh. Seeing Kenji probably riled up Yayoi (in addition to the fact that they'd long been past civil conversation), and so she did something rash and strangled her husband.
As we know, Yayoi called up Masako for help, and Masako handled everything from then on. Yayoi just had to get her stories in order, and act the part of a grieving widow, and everything should've technically worked out. The thing is, cutting up a corpse was far more traumatizing than having to lie. Yayoi started taking care of herself nurturing her beauty, and this definitely rubbed the other women the wrong way. They were absolutely traumatized and here was Yayoi flaunting her newfound freedom in their faces.
Yayoi let down her defenses too quickly. It hadn't occurred to her that anybody would be onto her (i.e. Jumonji and Satake). I think Masako was more annoyed at Yayoi than angry that she'd been so careless.
The way I would put it, I think that Yayoi was playing innocent and naive. In her eyes, she'd had the most difficult job of killing her husband. She perhaps knew that cutting up a body was not exactly pleasant work, but she chose to turn a blind eye to Masako, Kuniko, and Yoshie's work because Masako had been so professional about it all.
Yayoi had thrown away her engagement ring, only for it to be fetched back by Takashi. Yayoi acknowledged that while she hated Kenji, he did also give her life a bit of direction.
In the end, all of Yayoi's insurance money was stolen by Satake (and later taken by Masako). Yayoi hadn't actually realized that she'd come into insurance money, but it was still a pleasant surprise. But now that she didn't have the money anymore, she'd have to go back to being a hardworking mother again. Near the end of the book, Yayoi told Masako that she was moving in with her parents.
Yoshiki
Yoshiki was Masako's husband. A few years ago, he'd started isolating himself from Masako, not telling her about his job, even sleeping apart. This relationship was seem from Masako's point of view, and I think she felt that Yoshiki had been the instigator of them growing apart.
Towards the end of the book, Masako and Yoshiki actually had conversation for once, while Yoshiki was doing his laundry. They talked about how and why they'd grown apart, and from the conversation, it really seemed that Yoshiki knew he'd done wrong by the family, but didn't care enough to rectify it. When Masako asked him whether he'd look for her if she disappeared, he said that he wouldn't. While this gave Masako the go-ahead to live her life independently, it really showed how little connection Yoshiki felt with someone he'd married.
Nobuki
Nobuki was Masako's son. He hadn't spoke to Masako in years, and the first time he did speak in the book was to challenge Masako when she was giving her alibi to the police. The second time we heard Nobuki speak was when Masako told him that he'd be on his own from then on. Then, he blew up at Masako, calling her names and such.
Nobuki was around 18 years old, and I think that he was still going through emotional growing pains. He never spoke to his parents, but that's par for the course for a lot of teenagers going through teen angst. It just didn't help Masako because she was already being ignored completely by her husband.
I don't think that Nobuki's lack of communication was an innate trait, but rather, something that grew out of his parents also being non-communicative. So in other words, he was kind of a casualty of Yoshiki and Masako's inability to keep the family together.
Tetsuya Jonouchi
Tetsuya was Kuniko's long term partner. The first time we met him, Kuniko had returned home and wanted to have sex with him, but he was tired and was preparing to go to work.
Later on, Tetsuya ran away from Kuniko, quitting his job, and taking all the money away, which left Kuniko in a pickle. While Kuniko had little to no real affection for Tetsuya, the fact that he'd fled caused financial problems with her, as he'd taken the money, and also because he'd been a guarantor on her loans.
Kazue
Kazue was Yoshie's daughter. Yoshie had never told her friends about her older daughter because she'd ran off with a man years ago. Kazue later came back to dump her son on Yoshie and to take some money from her. And later, Kazue came back to steal the money that Yoshie had made from corpse disposal, and to take Issey back. Overall, a scumbag.
Issey
Issey was Kazue's son and Yoshie's grandson. Yoshie said that she'd grown to enjoy his company. That wasn't surprising at all. Out of all her family members, Issey was the only one who wasn't actively out to get her. Unfortunately, Issey was taken away by Kazue when she came back to take more of Yoshie's money.
Miki
Miki was Yoshie's high school-aged daughter. At the beginning of the book, we were clued in to the fact that perhaps Miki wasn't totally trustworthy. She really needed money for her school trip, but the amount of money seemed a bit much. Yoshie event went to the extent of borrowing money from Masako in order to fund the school trip despite having an inkling that Miki was scamming her.
When Yoshie had made some more money, she'd planned on saving up some of it to send Miki to college, even though Miki hadn't really expressed much of an interest in it.
At the end of the book, Miki ran away, just like Kazue did. The fact that Miki ran off probably caused Yoshie to finally give up.
Yoshie's mother-in-law
Yoshie's MIL had treated her poorly, but in her old age, she was completely helpless on her own. Yoshie had to do everything for her, including changing her diaper, and the smell reeked throughout the apartment.
I think the reason that Yoshie put up with her MIL was that Yoshie really valued family, even though as we saw in this book, all of Yoshie's family members treated her very poorly. I think that Yoshie felt that taking care of her family was her top priority, and that her job at the factory or her personal well-being were only tools to help her fulfill that priority.
Yoshie's MIL probably died in the house fire. I'm starting to wonder whether Yoshie had set the fire herself after Miki had left. However, I think she did seem a bit surprised when she was called about it at work, so maybe not.
Kenji Yamamoto
Kenji was Yayoi's husband. We learned that he was an all-around scumbag. While they were co-workers, Kenji had gone after Yayoi because she was the most beautiful woman in the company. He promptly lost interest after they got married.
At the beginning of the book, Kenji was obsessed with a hostess called Anna, to the point of stalking her. He also got involved with gambling, likely because he needed money to fuel his obsession with Anna, and gambled away the Yamamoto family savings.
Yamamoto had become a problem for both the hostess club and gambling parlours that Satake had owned, and he was kicked out. That could've been a fresh start for Kenji to get his life back on track, but instead, he was killed by Yayoi.
Takashi & Yukihiro Yamamoto
Takashi and Yukihiro were Yayoi and Kenji's kids. It's unsure of whether the boys were aware of Yayoi's murder of their father. They had recalled Yayoi's big bruise, and that Kenji had returned home the night of his murder, but Yayoi had convinced the police that the boys must've been dreaming.
In addition, the boys were looking for their cat, Milk, who'd run away because it had gotten scared when Yayoi was strangling her husband. However, I don't think that was a particularly interesting plot point as animals generally don't make good witnesses.
Kazuo Miyamori
Kazuo worked at the same factory as Masako, Kuniko, Yoshie, and Yayoi. He was Brazilian-Japanese, which made him stand out.
He'd gotten lonely and decided to jump Masako and rape her. However, she'd defied him and left. That left an impression on Kazuo, and over time, he fell in love with her. Like Masako and Satake's relationship, I also didn't really understand what about Masako Kazuo was attracted to.
Anyway, Kazuo's life started to revolve around Masako. He decided to improve his Japanese so he could apologize to her. He also started to be a little more accommodating around the other women in hopes that Masako would realize that he wasn't so bad.
Kazuo was supposed to stay at the factory for two years, but he decided he'd leave early, as he wasn't really getting anywhere in his life. He wasn't connecting with Japanese culture, and he wasn't making any friends either.
Masako had asked Kazuo to hide all of her money and passport right before she decided to run from Satake. He agreed to do so. When Masako came back for the passport and money, Kazuo did his apology. Masako accepted and forgave him, but Kazuo knew that this was not the forgiveness that he wanted. Masako had given him a very superficial forgiveness, the kind that showed that she'd stopped caring long ago. Instead, Kazuo had wanted Masako to forgive him because she actually liked him.
Kazuo tried to show some friendship and love to Masako. He was a listening ear, and hugged her. He even gave her his address in Brazil so she could seek him out. But I think deep down inside he knew that there was a near-zero chance of Masako ever seeking him out.
Mitsuyoshi Satake
Satake was the owner of a gambling parlour and hostess club, and was framed for the murder of Kenji.
Long ago, Satake had gone to jail for murdering a woman. It was claimed that after he'd captured her, he tortured and raped her for hours before finally killing her. It was in that moment that Satake felt true love. I don't know if the woman knew what Satake was feeling when he was torturing and killing her, but Satake admitted that it was a defining moment in his life. Satake hadn't had sex with anyone else because he just wasn't thrilled in the same way as he had with that woman.
Satake was framed for murder because he'd been the last man to see Kenji after he'd kicked him out of his establishments. Satake escaped, and was determined to take revenge on Yayoi, whom he was convinced was guilty from the moment he saw her on TV. Again, I'm not really sure why or how he jumped to that conclusion, and it kind of took away the fun in my opinion.
Satake hired a private investigator to look into Yayoi and her friends from work. The private investigators put together a pretty complete picture of the crime for Satake. Again, I thought it was a bit of lazy writing, but fine.
Satake first got to Kuniko, likely because she was the easiest one to fall in the trap. He used Kuniko to scare Yoshie, Masako, and Jumonji, even though he wasn't even involved in Kenji's murder. Then, he intimidated Yayoi into giving him all her money so that he could flee.
Satake had fallen in love with Masako during their game of cat-and-mouse, because she had defied him, just like that woman he'd killed had. Satake liked her hardheadnesses as well as her brains. Eventually, Satake captured Masako and raped her. Again, I did think that the rape scenes were very graphic. I think that Satake had expected that he might die in that moment. However, he was more concerned with achieving the same pleasure that he'd missed. When Masako said she was about to climax but instead tried to pull the knife on Satake, he was angry with her not for trying to kill him, but because he'd lost the momentum and wouldn't be able to climax as he wanted.
In the end, Masako killed Satake with a scalpel she had in her coat pocket (from a previous corpse disposal operation). Satake didn't seem to mind because he felt a kinship that he'd missed.
Satake was an alright villain. I didn't think he was particularly cool or interesting, and I thought that the fixation on his kinks got in the way of the story a bit too much towards the end.
Anna Ri
Anna was the top hostess at Satake's hostess bar. She was also the object of Kenji's obsessions until he was thrown out/killed.
Anna was from China, and had come over to Japan to make money. Hostessing seemed to work for her, seeing as how she was really good at it.
Anna was also in love with Satake, and wasn't sure why he never seemed to react to his affections. Satake had mentioned several times that he saw Anna more as a pet, and that he didn't really feel sexual attraction to her like he did for the woman he'd killed. He'd said that the reason that Anna was successful at hostessing was because she was not aware that she was just a pet. By that, I think he meant that Anna was good at acting like she actually wanted to be a lover.
It came as a shock to Anna when she found out that Satake had tortured, raped, and murdered a woman. She soon realized that she'd always been a pet to Satake and nothing more. When Satake later saw Anna at another hostess club, he said that she'd already lost her touch because she realized that she was only a pet.
Jumonji/Akira Yamada
Jumonji was a loan shark in charge of Kuniko's debt. Years ago, he'd also encountered Masako due to her working in a credit union.
Like Satake, Jumonji guessed way too easily that Yayoi, Kuniko, Yoshie, and Masako were involved in Kenji's death. He offered to write off Kuniko's debt if she agreed to tell him everything, and she did. If Jumonji had any ill intentions, the women would have been in deep shit.
Anyway, Jumonji took advantage of the information and extended a business opportunity to Masako. He knew that she was a competent woman and I'd say that he even admired her. I guess there's something about Masako that draws in all the weirdos.
After this, Jumonji just sort of hung in the background. He facilitated Yoshie and Masako's corpse disposal operations, but he laid low, especially when Satake made it known that he was onto them.
Themes
Social isolation
The four main women were isolated from their families just by virtue of working the night shift, when most people were sleeping. Of course, social isolation was a major issue for Masako, as she didn't even speak with her husband and son.
I think social isolation was emphasized in this book through the use of first-person narrative. For each of the POV characters, we read about their deepest thoughts. We learned and understood why they felt different from their peers.
Poverty
The women were working the night shift at the factory because they needed a job, and not because they enjoyed the work. Masako was pushed out of her company because she couldn't fit in with the corporate culture. Kuniko was deep in debt but didn't have the diligence nor the charm to pull off any high-paying job. Yoshie and Yayoi were both responsible for supporting their entire families.
In addition, Kuniko, Yoshie, and Yayoi had financial outflow issues as well. Kuniko could not stop spending money the moment she got it. She acknowledge that she'd never pay back her debts, and that she could only hope to keep up with the interest. But she also couldn't resist buying goods she thought would elevate herself, whether or not they suited her. She bought a fancy car despite the fact that she only ever went to work at the factory where no one of note would see it. She would buy fancy clothes even if they didn't suit her. And she'd be flattered into buying makeup that didn't suit her either.
As for Yoshie, she was constantly being scammed by her daughters but she turned a blind eye to that.
Yayoi's life savings had been gambled away by Kenji, which was one of the multitude of things that made her absolutely hate him.
Ageism
Kuniko was in her thirties and not the most conventionally attractive, and thus could never pull in any of the night jobs that raked in huge amounts of dough (e.g. hostessing and such).
Miki told Yoshie that she'd found a part time job for the summer, and Yoshie was surprised to find out that the hourly wage was higher than hers at the factory. Yoshie suspected that it might've had to do with age.
We found out that Jumonji was exclusively into teenage girls which is so extremely slimey. He seemed aware of his vices, and acknowledged that his love interests were essentially children, but that doesn't make it better.
Family commitments
Yoshie was the most bogged down by her family commitments, especially because none of her family members had ever done anything for her.
Yayoi did have two boys to take care of, but she was going to receive help from her parents, which would likely get her back on track.
On the other end of the spectrum, Masako essentially had no more connections and obligations to her family, which left her free to leave.
Discrimination
There was discrimination at the factory towards the Brazilian workers, likely because they couldn't speak Japanese well, and also because they looked different than the typical Japanese person.
Misogyny
The women who worked at the factory probably had a really hard time because they worked at such an unglamorous job. Unless they were naturally beautiful like Yayoi, they either had to glam themselves up like Kuniko, or resort to being old and boring like Masako and Yoshie.
The treatment of women by men in this book were also mostly negative. Most of the relationships were indifferent at best and abusive at worst. Satake never saw women as anything more than pets, and Jumonji only stuck to young girls that he could manipulate.
I do also think that the women judged each other for their backgrounds or their traits. Kuniko herself wasn't conventionally attractive and so I think she was a bit hateful towards anybody who was young and/or beautiful. Meanwhile, Kuniko was constantly being judged for wanting to be beautiful even though society was set up in a way that only the beautiful women could seem to get ahead.
Overall
This was an interesting book, but I wouldn't say that it's among my favourite Japanese mystery novels. I thought it was daring for the book to describe graphic events in such explicit detail. Where I think the book fell flat was in how it ended. I was lost interest in the end.
I thought the book was interesting, but I don't know that I would necessarily recommend it to someone who was new to Japanese mystery novels.
Spoilers.
Story
The story started off in a way that I would've expected of a crime novel. It set up our characters very well, showing us the ugly parts of their lives that defined them.
Then, it became a thriller, when Satake started going after the women as payback for having him framed. At this point, I was still interested in the story because I was wondering whether the women would get away with their crime.
Near the end, the story became a psychological journey for Masako, as she became acquainted with Satake. This is where the story lost me. It was a tough read because of the rape and violence, but I also didn't understand what about Satake drew Masako to him. Maybe she was fascinated by his attitudes towards violence, as she had discovered that she was beginning to not despise it. I would agree that she understood Satake, but I couldn't understand how she went from understanding to love.
Because of this, I would say that the story was good up until the very end.
Writing
One thing that bothered me during the story was that there wasn't as much sleuthing as I'd have liked. Most characters jumped to the right conclusions without having considered other false leads, which took away some of the intrigue for me.
The police officers guessed that Masako, Yoshie, and Kuniko had helped Yayoi, despite having little to no evidence. Satake had also guessed right away that Yayoi was the actual murderer. I guess that for this story, the point was not how the characters got to their conclusions, but that they did with that information. I can respect that, but it took away some of the fun for me.
As I mentioned, a lot of the writing was crude in that it depicted violence and gore rather explicitly and graphically. The rape scene at the very end especially was a bit shocking for me, especially because the rape ended up with Masako actually liking Satake. I would've understood if Masako had come to understand Satake during the rape, but "liking" was a bit strong.
I was also surprised by how the author depicted the terrible lives of the women. Each of them had their own share of struggles, but I was actually pleased to see how starkly and honestly the author had explained each of their vices and struggles without censoring them or making them more pleasing to read.
Characters
I thought each of the characters were unique and had their own distinctive motivations, character traits, and vices.
Masako Katori
Masako was the main character of the book. Because she was the ringleader of the Kenji disposal operation, and because the book focused on her own psychological journey towards the end of the book.
Masako used to work for a credit union. She was good at her job, but her stubbornness made her unpopular with her coworkers, and the company found an opportunity to push her out despite twenty years of service. That was how she ended up working the night shift at the factory.
As for her home life, she wasn't struggling with finances or abusive relationships, but there was an extreme degree of isolation between her, her husband, and her son. Masako and her husband Yoshiki had stopped sleeping together, and near the end, when Masako asked him if he'd come after her if she disappeared, he said no. It wasn't a shock, but more of a confirmation to Masako that they'd really become strangers. As for Nobuki, he hadn't spoken to Masako in years. He'd dropped out of school, but that was the extent of what Masako knew. Near the end when Masako told Nobuki that he was on his own, he blew up on her. I'll talk more about this in his section. In any case, Masako was extremely isolated, to the point that the only person she could trust was Kazuo, the man who had almost raped her but had instead fallen in love with her. Masako didn't even fully trust her coworkers at the factory despite having cut up a body for and with them.
Masako was a no-nonsense kind of person, which allowed her to handle the disposal of Kenji's body in a very professional manner. The other trait that helped her was probably her social isolation. She hadn't had true emotional connection with anybody for years, so that's why I think it was easier for her not to see the corpses as humans. It's not a surprise that things that help people in their careers and their jobs often hinder them in their personal lives.
Masako admitted that cutting up Kenji's body opened a new door for her. I guess she hadn't realized that she could do something like that and with this new knowledge, she felt that she was becoming more and more detached from normal society. At first, Masako didn't want Yayoi's money. I think this was because she was starting to understand that she was not the kind of person who might've minded this. However, later, Masako took money just as a way to protect herself.
Masako was the first to suspect that the women were being investigated by someone other than the police. This clued us in to the fact that Masako was perhaps the only one who was truly on another level. While Yoshie, Kuniko, and Yayoi were still worrying about home lives and material goods, Masako no longer had any of those attachments and could focus all of her brain power in hunting down Satake. I don't think she would've cared about hunting down Satake if it wasn't for the fact that he was specifically hunting her down.
I understand how Masako would've felt a kinship with Satake. Satake had only felt pleasure once in his life, when he was actively killing another person. Masako hadn't felt sexually aroused in years until she had that erotic dream that was also violent. But I wasn't really sure how the story jumped from understanding, to Masako feeling sad that she killed Satake and instead wanting them to live together. Their relationship thrived on their hatred for one another, so Masako's change of heart didn't make much sense to me. In the end, Masako also went to Satake's gambling parlour in search of some direction in life, but gave up on that and instead decided to head to Brazil as Kazuo had recommended.
In terms of her relationships with other women, I think Masako really only saw Yoshie as competent, but the issue was that Yoshie had a lot more family responsibilities than Masako did. Masako was detached from her husband and her son was a legal adult. Meanwhile, Yoshie had to take care of her mother-in-law, and was constantly being ripped off by her daughters. Masako clearly showed contempt for Kuniko, who was unable to get her spending habits under control. Initially, I think that Masako didn't think much of Yayoi, but she started to hate her a little for how brazen and unappreciative she was getting. I think Masako started to get annoyed that Yayoi thought she was completely in the clear, and wish that she'd be a little smarter and low-key about her newfound freedom and happiness.
Overall, I'd say that Masako was a very practical, stubborn, and emotionless woman. Like Satake, she'd only rediscovered emotion and excitement through violence, but due to her background of being a woman with a family, hadn't had the opportunity to explore that side of her until meeting Satake. Even though Kazuo showed care for her, she didn't want it. By the end, I think she fully accepted that she was better off alone in the world.
Kuniko Jonouchi
I'm pretty sure Kuniko was written to be an annoying character on purpose. She was very materialistic, splurging her money on all sorts of things, even though she knew it couldn't cover up the fact that she lived a life that was far from luxury. In addition to her poor spending habits, Kuniko was not a particularly trustworthy person. Masako and Yoshie hadn't wanted to include Kuniko in their corpse disposal operation because they knew that Kuniko would never be diligent or careful enough, and in the end, they were correct.
Kuniko had a long term partner, but they did not have a good relationship. They probably lived together due to loneliness at first, but at the start of the book, they hadn't had sex for a long time, and I think their habits were starting to grate on each other.
Most of Kuniko's actions in the book boiled down to two things: money and sex. She got involved in the disposal of Kenji's corpse because she needed money and was bothering Masako about it. She then leaked information to Jumonji because he would cancel her debt if she did so. Lastly, she got caught in Satake's trap because she was hoping to have sex with him.
In hindsight, I do think that perhaps Kuniko might've been a bit of a caricature. I haven't met anybody with Kuniko's spending habits, but perhaps Kuniko was an example of how overfixation on money and sex can make one a despicable person.
Yoshie Azuma
Yoshie was a competent worker at the factory, but was very weak in her family life. She was stuck caring for her mother-in-law despite having been treated poorly by the other woman. In addition, her daughters were always tricking her out of money and she'd knowingly let herself get tricked.
I think that Yoshie probably excelled at her job because she couldn't stand up to the people who were bullying her in her personal life. Her job was the only thing she had going for her at the beginning of the book.
After Yoshie got involved with corpse disposal, her finances got a little bit better, but the money kept getting stolen from her two daughters. Yoshie had intended on moving to a better home. By the end of the book, Yoshie's house was apparently on fire. The reader wasn't told what eventually happened, but we can deduce that her mother-in-law likely died in the fire and that Yoshie had no home anymore.
That being said, at that point, Yoshie would have no longer had to care for the mother-in-law that she tolerated, and she likely wouldn't be seeing her daughters ever again. So I think that Yoshie could focus on restarting her life and working for herself only.
I did pity Yoshie because she was so saddled with her family commitments. I also sympathized with her because she likely willingly turned a blind eye to her daughters' thefts because she did still love them a bit. She actually admitted to Masako that she missed Issey a little when she suspected her daughter had taken him away. Unfortunately, Yoshie's family never gave her anything and only took and took.
Yayoi Yamamoto
I thought Yayoi's character was interesting but we didn't get to explore her too much. Yayoi was trapped in an abusive and loveless relationship with her husband. As a young woman, she'd fallen for Kenji's charms, only to find out after they got married that Kenji was far more interested in the chase than he was in her. Because of this, Yayoi definitely felt cheated. She was acknowledged numerous times by many people as being very beautiful, even in her 30s, so of course she'd feel cheated that she'd spent the most beautiful years of her life with a husband who didn't even appreciate her beauty.
The breaking point was when Kenji first assaulted Yayoi, leaving a big bruise on her stomach. That was probably the single event that made Yayoi realize that she actually was in a relationship that was bad for her.
A few days later, Kenji had been kicked out of the gambling and hostess parlours run by Satake, so he'd went home early, which was rare. This gave him and Yayoi and opportunity to actually see each other in the flesh. Seeing Kenji probably riled up Yayoi (in addition to the fact that they'd long been past civil conversation), and so she did something rash and strangled her husband.
As we know, Yayoi called up Masako for help, and Masako handled everything from then on. Yayoi just had to get her stories in order, and act the part of a grieving widow, and everything should've technically worked out. The thing is, cutting up a corpse was far more traumatizing than having to lie. Yayoi started taking care of herself nurturing her beauty, and this definitely rubbed the other women the wrong way. They were absolutely traumatized and here was Yayoi flaunting her newfound freedom in their faces.
Yayoi let down her defenses too quickly. It hadn't occurred to her that anybody would be onto her (i.e. Jumonji and Satake). I think Masako was more annoyed at Yayoi than angry that she'd been so careless.
The way I would put it, I think that Yayoi was playing innocent and naive. In her eyes, she'd had the most difficult job of killing her husband. She perhaps knew that cutting up a body was not exactly pleasant work, but she chose to turn a blind eye to Masako, Kuniko, and Yoshie's work because Masako had been so professional about it all.
Yayoi had thrown away her engagement ring, only for it to be fetched back by Takashi. Yayoi acknowledged that while she hated Kenji, he did also give her life a bit of direction.
In the end, all of Yayoi's insurance money was stolen by Satake (and later taken by Masako). Yayoi hadn't actually realized that she'd come into insurance money, but it was still a pleasant surprise. But now that she didn't have the money anymore, she'd have to go back to being a hardworking mother again. Near the end of the book, Yayoi told Masako that she was moving in with her parents.
Yoshiki
Yoshiki was Masako's husband. A few years ago, he'd started isolating himself from Masako, not telling her about his job, even sleeping apart. This relationship was seem from Masako's point of view, and I think she felt that Yoshiki had been the instigator of them growing apart.
Towards the end of the book, Masako and Yoshiki actually had conversation for once, while Yoshiki was doing his laundry. They talked about how and why they'd grown apart, and from the conversation, it really seemed that Yoshiki knew he'd done wrong by the family, but didn't care enough to rectify it. When Masako asked him whether he'd look for her if she disappeared, he said that he wouldn't. While this gave Masako the go-ahead to live her life independently, it really showed how little connection Yoshiki felt with someone he'd married.
Nobuki
Nobuki was Masako's son. He hadn't spoke to Masako in years, and the first time he did speak in the book was to challenge Masako when she was giving her alibi to the police. The second time we heard Nobuki speak was when Masako told him that he'd be on his own from then on. Then, he blew up at Masako, calling her names and such.
Nobuki was around 18 years old, and I think that he was still going through emotional growing pains. He never spoke to his parents, but that's par for the course for a lot of teenagers going through teen angst. It just didn't help Masako because she was already being ignored completely by her husband.
I don't think that Nobuki's lack of communication was an innate trait, but rather, something that grew out of his parents also being non-communicative. So in other words, he was kind of a casualty of Yoshiki and Masako's inability to keep the family together.
Tetsuya Jonouchi
Tetsuya was Kuniko's long term partner. The first time we met him, Kuniko had returned home and wanted to have sex with him, but he was tired and was preparing to go to work.
Later on, Tetsuya ran away from Kuniko, quitting his job, and taking all the money away, which left Kuniko in a pickle. While Kuniko had little to no real affection for Tetsuya, the fact that he'd fled caused financial problems with her, as he'd taken the money, and also because he'd been a guarantor on her loans.
Kazue
Kazue was Yoshie's daughter. Yoshie had never told her friends about her older daughter because she'd ran off with a man years ago. Kazue later came back to dump her son on Yoshie and to take some money from her. And later, Kazue came back to steal the money that Yoshie had made from corpse disposal, and to take Issey back. Overall, a scumbag.
Issey
Issey was Kazue's son and Yoshie's grandson. Yoshie said that she'd grown to enjoy his company. That wasn't surprising at all. Out of all her family members, Issey was the only one who wasn't actively out to get her. Unfortunately, Issey was taken away by Kazue when she came back to take more of Yoshie's money.
Miki
Miki was Yoshie's high school-aged daughter. At the beginning of the book, we were clued in to the fact that perhaps Miki wasn't totally trustworthy. She really needed money for her school trip, but the amount of money seemed a bit much. Yoshie event went to the extent of borrowing money from Masako in order to fund the school trip despite having an inkling that Miki was scamming her.
When Yoshie had made some more money, she'd planned on saving up some of it to send Miki to college, even though Miki hadn't really expressed much of an interest in it.
At the end of the book, Miki ran away, just like Kazue did. The fact that Miki ran off probably caused Yoshie to finally give up.
Yoshie's mother-in-law
Yoshie's MIL had treated her poorly, but in her old age, she was completely helpless on her own. Yoshie had to do everything for her, including changing her diaper, and the smell reeked throughout the apartment.
I think the reason that Yoshie put up with her MIL was that Yoshie really valued family, even though as we saw in this book, all of Yoshie's family members treated her very poorly. I think that Yoshie felt that taking care of her family was her top priority, and that her job at the factory or her personal well-being were only tools to help her fulfill that priority.
Yoshie's MIL probably died in the house fire. I'm starting to wonder whether Yoshie had set the fire herself after Miki had left. However, I think she did seem a bit surprised when she was called about it at work, so maybe not.
Kenji Yamamoto
Kenji was Yayoi's husband. We learned that he was an all-around scumbag. While they were co-workers, Kenji had gone after Yayoi because she was the most beautiful woman in the company. He promptly lost interest after they got married.
At the beginning of the book, Kenji was obsessed with a hostess called Anna, to the point of stalking her. He also got involved with gambling, likely because he needed money to fuel his obsession with Anna, and gambled away the Yamamoto family savings.
Yamamoto had become a problem for both the hostess club and gambling parlours that Satake had owned, and he was kicked out. That could've been a fresh start for Kenji to get his life back on track, but instead, he was killed by Yayoi.
Takashi & Yukihiro Yamamoto
Takashi and Yukihiro were Yayoi and Kenji's kids. It's unsure of whether the boys were aware of Yayoi's murder of their father. They had recalled Yayoi's big bruise, and that Kenji had returned home the night of his murder, but Yayoi had convinced the police that the boys must've been dreaming.
In addition, the boys were looking for their cat, Milk, who'd run away because it had gotten scared when Yayoi was strangling her husband. However, I don't think that was a particularly interesting plot point as animals generally don't make good witnesses.
Kazuo Miyamori
Kazuo worked at the same factory as Masako, Kuniko, Yoshie, and Yayoi. He was Brazilian-Japanese, which made him stand out.
He'd gotten lonely and decided to jump Masako and rape her. However, she'd defied him and left. That left an impression on Kazuo, and over time, he fell in love with her. Like Masako and Satake's relationship, I also didn't really understand what about Masako Kazuo was attracted to.
Anyway, Kazuo's life started to revolve around Masako. He decided to improve his Japanese so he could apologize to her. He also started to be a little more accommodating around the other women in hopes that Masako would realize that he wasn't so bad.
Kazuo was supposed to stay at the factory for two years, but he decided he'd leave early, as he wasn't really getting anywhere in his life. He wasn't connecting with Japanese culture, and he wasn't making any friends either.
Masako had asked Kazuo to hide all of her money and passport right before she decided to run from Satake. He agreed to do so. When Masako came back for the passport and money, Kazuo did his apology. Masako accepted and forgave him, but Kazuo knew that this was not the forgiveness that he wanted. Masako had given him a very superficial forgiveness, the kind that showed that she'd stopped caring long ago. Instead, Kazuo had wanted Masako to forgive him because she actually liked him.
Kazuo tried to show some friendship and love to Masako. He was a listening ear, and hugged her. He even gave her his address in Brazil so she could seek him out. But I think deep down inside he knew that there was a near-zero chance of Masako ever seeking him out.
Mitsuyoshi Satake
Satake was the owner of a gambling parlour and hostess club, and was framed for the murder of Kenji.
Long ago, Satake had gone to jail for murdering a woman. It was claimed that after he'd captured her, he tortured and raped her for hours before finally killing her. It was in that moment that Satake felt true love. I don't know if the woman knew what Satake was feeling when he was torturing and killing her, but Satake admitted that it was a defining moment in his life. Satake hadn't had sex with anyone else because he just wasn't thrilled in the same way as he had with that woman.
Satake was framed for murder because he'd been the last man to see Kenji after he'd kicked him out of his establishments. Satake escaped, and was determined to take revenge on Yayoi, whom he was convinced was guilty from the moment he saw her on TV. Again, I'm not really sure why or how he jumped to that conclusion, and it kind of took away the fun in my opinion.
Satake hired a private investigator to look into Yayoi and her friends from work. The private investigators put together a pretty complete picture of the crime for Satake. Again, I thought it was a bit of lazy writing, but fine.
Satake first got to Kuniko, likely because she was the easiest one to fall in the trap. He used Kuniko to scare Yoshie, Masako, and Jumonji, even though he wasn't even involved in Kenji's murder. Then, he intimidated Yayoi into giving him all her money so that he could flee.
Satake had fallen in love with Masako during their game of cat-and-mouse, because she had defied him, just like that woman he'd killed had. Satake liked her hardheadnesses as well as her brains. Eventually, Satake captured Masako and raped her. Again, I did think that the rape scenes were very graphic. I think that Satake had expected that he might die in that moment. However, he was more concerned with achieving the same pleasure that he'd missed. When Masako said she was about to climax but instead tried to pull the knife on Satake, he was angry with her not for trying to kill him, but because he'd lost the momentum and wouldn't be able to climax as he wanted.
In the end, Masako killed Satake with a scalpel she had in her coat pocket (from a previous corpse disposal operation). Satake didn't seem to mind because he felt a kinship that he'd missed.
Satake was an alright villain. I didn't think he was particularly cool or interesting, and I thought that the fixation on his kinks got in the way of the story a bit too much towards the end.
Anna Ri
Anna was the top hostess at Satake's hostess bar. She was also the object of Kenji's obsessions until he was thrown out/killed.
Anna was from China, and had come over to Japan to make money. Hostessing seemed to work for her, seeing as how she was really good at it.
Anna was also in love with Satake, and wasn't sure why he never seemed to react to his affections. Satake had mentioned several times that he saw Anna more as a pet, and that he didn't really feel sexual attraction to her like he did for the woman he'd killed. He'd said that the reason that Anna was successful at hostessing was because she was not aware that she was just a pet. By that, I think he meant that Anna was good at acting like she actually wanted to be a lover.
It came as a shock to Anna when she found out that Satake had tortured, raped, and murdered a woman. She soon realized that she'd always been a pet to Satake and nothing more. When Satake later saw Anna at another hostess club, he said that she'd already lost her touch because she realized that she was only a pet.
Jumonji/Akira Yamada
Jumonji was a loan shark in charge of Kuniko's debt. Years ago, he'd also encountered Masako due to her working in a credit union.
Like Satake, Jumonji guessed way too easily that Yayoi, Kuniko, Yoshie, and Masako were involved in Kenji's death. He offered to write off Kuniko's debt if she agreed to tell him everything, and she did. If Jumonji had any ill intentions, the women would have been in deep shit.
Anyway, Jumonji took advantage of the information and extended a business opportunity to Masako. He knew that she was a competent woman and I'd say that he even admired her. I guess there's something about Masako that draws in all the weirdos.
After this, Jumonji just sort of hung in the background. He facilitated Yoshie and Masako's corpse disposal operations, but he laid low, especially when Satake made it known that he was onto them.
Themes
Social isolation
The four main women were isolated from their families just by virtue of working the night shift, when most people were sleeping. Of course, social isolation was a major issue for Masako, as she didn't even speak with her husband and son.
I think social isolation was emphasized in this book through the use of first-person narrative. For each of the POV characters, we read about their deepest thoughts. We learned and understood why they felt different from their peers.
Poverty
The women were working the night shift at the factory because they needed a job, and not because they enjoyed the work. Masako was pushed out of her company because she couldn't fit in with the corporate culture. Kuniko was deep in debt but didn't have the diligence nor the charm to pull off any high-paying job. Yoshie and Yayoi were both responsible for supporting their entire families.
In addition, Kuniko, Yoshie, and Yayoi had financial outflow issues as well. Kuniko could not stop spending money the moment she got it. She acknowledge that she'd never pay back her debts, and that she could only hope to keep up with the interest. But she also couldn't resist buying goods she thought would elevate herself, whether or not they suited her. She bought a fancy car despite the fact that she only ever went to work at the factory where no one of note would see it. She would buy fancy clothes even if they didn't suit her. And she'd be flattered into buying makeup that didn't suit her either.
As for Yoshie, she was constantly being scammed by her daughters but she turned a blind eye to that.
Yayoi's life savings had been gambled away by Kenji, which was one of the multitude of things that made her absolutely hate him.
Ageism
Kuniko was in her thirties and not the most conventionally attractive, and thus could never pull in any of the night jobs that raked in huge amounts of dough (e.g. hostessing and such).
Miki told Yoshie that she'd found a part time job for the summer, and Yoshie was surprised to find out that the hourly wage was higher than hers at the factory. Yoshie suspected that it might've had to do with age.
We found out that Jumonji was exclusively into teenage girls which is so extremely slimey. He seemed aware of his vices, and acknowledged that his love interests were essentially children, but that doesn't make it better.
Family commitments
Yoshie was the most bogged down by her family commitments, especially because none of her family members had ever done anything for her.
Yayoi did have two boys to take care of, but she was going to receive help from her parents, which would likely get her back on track.
On the other end of the spectrum, Masako essentially had no more connections and obligations to her family, which left her free to leave.
Discrimination
There was discrimination at the factory towards the Brazilian workers, likely because they couldn't speak Japanese well, and also because they looked different than the typical Japanese person.
Misogyny
The women who worked at the factory probably had a really hard time because they worked at such an unglamorous job. Unless they were naturally beautiful like Yayoi, they either had to glam themselves up like Kuniko, or resort to being old and boring like Masako and Yoshie.
The treatment of women by men in this book were also mostly negative. Most of the relationships were indifferent at best and abusive at worst. Satake never saw women as anything more than pets, and Jumonji only stuck to young girls that he could manipulate.
I do also think that the women judged each other for their backgrounds or their traits. Kuniko herself wasn't conventionally attractive and so I think she was a bit hateful towards anybody who was young and/or beautiful. Meanwhile, Kuniko was constantly being judged for wanting to be beautiful even though society was set up in a way that only the beautiful women could seem to get ahead.
Overall
This was an interesting book, but I wouldn't say that it's among my favourite Japanese mystery novels. I thought it was daring for the book to describe graphic events in such explicit detail. Where I think the book fell flat was in how it ended. I was lost interest in the end.