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Review: Fuminori Nakamura - The Thief (2012)
This was an incredibly short book, and it was interesting, but I wish it gave us a little more. I'd still recommend it as a short read, but don't expect to get your mind blown by this book.
Spoilers.
Story
The story follows Nishimura who is a pickpocket. He gets picked up by a gang to commit armed robbery for them, and is later held hostage by the boss to carry out some thefts for him. The book ends with Nishimura getting killed by the boss even though he'd carried out the thefts as he'd asked.
Along the way, Nishimura had also gotten to know a young boy who came from an unfortunate background. His mother was a prostitute who had no love for him nor did her abusive boyfriend, and he was introduced to shoplifting out of need.
Goodreads told me that this book was 211 pages but the version I had was only 109 pages so from the beginning, I was already a bit worried that I didn't have the right version. 109 pages for a book is incredibly short. After that ending, as Nishimura flipped the coin up in the air? That made me question even more whether I had the right version of the book. I checked with a couple of reviews and it seems that that is in fact the end.
I think the point of the book was to show us the bleak nature of Nishimura's life of crime. I'll talk about this more in the below sections.
Writing
I read an English-translated version. I did find some mistakes and I found that the writing could've been more elegant, but ultimately, it got the point across.
Characters
The Thief/Nishimura
Nishimura is the thief's real name, but he actually didn't use it in his day-to-day life. He was surprised when someone called him Nishimura because even his close friend Ishikawa didn't know that name.
On the surface, Nishimura didn't seem to be the sort of guy who was attached to his life. At least, that was the impression that Kizaki got. Not that that mattered much, as Kizaki was going to kill him anyway.
However, through his day-to-day routine, we did see that Nishimura was a fleshed out person. He wasn't particularly ambitious, but he had opinions and feelings. He hated that the little boy kept following him around because he knew he was a poor influence on him. And he kept thinking of a past lover, Saeko. He knew she was imperfect, but he still thought of her fondly, and I actually found myself really enjoying his accounts of their relationship.
Nishimura was the kind of guy who seemed to follow direction. Much like the nobleman's servant, Nishimura seemed resigned to the fact that his life was going to turn out a certain way and he couldn't do much but to follow it. It was definitely a very interesting viewpoint to come from a main character, but it also made Nishimura feel real.
As he lay daying in the alley, Nishimura realized that he didn't want to die. I guess it wasn't until this moment that he had such a strong opinion on the matter. The ending is left ambiguous so we'll never know if anybody came to help him.
Ishikawa/Niimi
Ishikawa was a friend to Nishimura, and they used to work in a team to pickpocket. Ishikawa was the closest thing to a good friend that Nishimura had. Throughout the book, it was obvious that Nishimura held Ishikawa in high esteem.
Nishimura involved himself in Kizaki's robbery because Ishikawa had asked him, and he heeded Ishikawa's advice to leave right after they'd done the deed. After finding out the truth behind Ishikawa's disappearance/death, Nishimura developed a hatred for Kizaki, when before, he only viewed him neutrally.
I think Nishimura's relationship with Ishikawa was one of those subtle things that fleshed out Nishimura as a person.
Kizaki
Kizaki was a gang boss who seemed to pride himself on being something of a mastermind. Throughout the book, he was ordering around his various henchmen, but we never really got to see the big picture of how they affected one another. It would've been interesting to find out, but from Nishimura's point of view, he would've died without knowing anyway.
Kizaki had kind of a god complex. He enjoyed controlling other people's lives. But he didn't find joy in having the power to control them, he found joy in being the one to set the rule. Does that make sense?
No matter how much anyone begged, Kizaki would not have spared them once he'd decided that he'd kill them. It was an interesting take on power.
Shoplifting boy
This boy was first spotted by Nishimura when he was shoplifting with his mother, but not doing a good job of it. Later on, he repeatedly came to ask Nishimura for help, mostly because he needed to buy things but didn't know how to do it.
Nishimura hated teaching the boy how to shoplift and pickpocket, because he knew it was a bad profession. He himself was always living life on the edge and he knew it wasn't a good way to live. But the boy was persistent and Nishimura had nothing else to offer him, so he gave in every time.
In the end, Nishimura had a talk with the boy's mother about putting him in a children's home, as the boy wanted to leave and Nishimura had no interest in caring for the boy (also because he knew he was going to be in danger). But that might've been the most humane thing he did for the boy. Again, it shows us that Nishimura isn't a guy devoid of morals. He just does what he needs to get by.
Boy's mother
The boy's mother was shown to be unstable and unreliable. She worked as a prostitute and had an abusive boyfriend. It's clear that she never defended her son in the face of her boyfriend, and in the end, it was shown that she didn't care for her son at all.
The mother was also kind of...shameless? She didn't hide the fact that she was easily affected by money. When Nishimura told her he'd give her money to send the boy to a group home, she jumped at the chance and dreamed about going on a vacation.
Themes
Stealing
I think stealing was actually presented in a sort of neutral context in this novel. Nishimura just treated it as his profession. He treated it like a regular day job to grumble about.
Only when the boy asked to learn from Nishimura, did he consider the morality of stealing. Even then, he only considered the career aspect of it, as in whether it was a safe and easy job, rather than whether stealing money from people was good or bad.
I think Nishimura did say that he tended to steal from rich people anyway, so I guess that's why his conscience was clear.
The thing about pickpocketing in this novel was that it was described in a way that made it seem so easy? Nishimura would put his hand in people's jackets and steal them, and it's kind of hard to believe that he wouldn't be found out without having a visual to see it in action.
Power
As I mentioned, Kizaki kind of had a god complex, but more in the sense that he wanted to control fate rather than lives. It's a subtle difference, but it's there.
He didn't revel in the way that people would beg him to spare them, he reveled in the way that people were powerless to stop him.
Like I said, it's an interesting take on power that I hadn't read before.
Life
By the end of the book, when Nishimura was laying in the alley, it was interesting to see how he came to the conclusion that he couldn't die yet, because there were still things he cared about in this world.
He often mused about dying and being with Saeko and Ishikawa, but when it came time to actually do it, he was afraid. I don't think he was afraid of dying, I think that there were things that he still wanted to do in life. And I liked that Nishimura came to that conclusion because it made me like him even more. His whole life, he just went with the flow. Little by little, the events in the book pushed and encouraged him to defy fate. Small things like learning that Kizaki had killed his best friend, like him trying to change the boy's fate for him, etc. These were small things that gave him the courage and the bravery to change things.
Overall
This was an interesting book, but like I said, it was too short to delve on any more than a few topics. Doesn't mean it was a bad book, it was just limited in scope, and that works for some people too.
Spoilers.
Story
The story follows Nishimura who is a pickpocket. He gets picked up by a gang to commit armed robbery for them, and is later held hostage by the boss to carry out some thefts for him. The book ends with Nishimura getting killed by the boss even though he'd carried out the thefts as he'd asked.
Along the way, Nishimura had also gotten to know a young boy who came from an unfortunate background. His mother was a prostitute who had no love for him nor did her abusive boyfriend, and he was introduced to shoplifting out of need.
Goodreads told me that this book was 211 pages but the version I had was only 109 pages so from the beginning, I was already a bit worried that I didn't have the right version. 109 pages for a book is incredibly short. After that ending, as Nishimura flipped the coin up in the air? That made me question even more whether I had the right version of the book. I checked with a couple of reviews and it seems that that is in fact the end.
I think the point of the book was to show us the bleak nature of Nishimura's life of crime. I'll talk about this more in the below sections.
Writing
I read an English-translated version. I did find some mistakes and I found that the writing could've been more elegant, but ultimately, it got the point across.
Characters
The Thief/Nishimura
Nishimura is the thief's real name, but he actually didn't use it in his day-to-day life. He was surprised when someone called him Nishimura because even his close friend Ishikawa didn't know that name.
On the surface, Nishimura didn't seem to be the sort of guy who was attached to his life. At least, that was the impression that Kizaki got. Not that that mattered much, as Kizaki was going to kill him anyway.
However, through his day-to-day routine, we did see that Nishimura was a fleshed out person. He wasn't particularly ambitious, but he had opinions and feelings. He hated that the little boy kept following him around because he knew he was a poor influence on him. And he kept thinking of a past lover, Saeko. He knew she was imperfect, but he still thought of her fondly, and I actually found myself really enjoying his accounts of their relationship.
Nishimura was the kind of guy who seemed to follow direction. Much like the nobleman's servant, Nishimura seemed resigned to the fact that his life was going to turn out a certain way and he couldn't do much but to follow it. It was definitely a very interesting viewpoint to come from a main character, but it also made Nishimura feel real.
As he lay daying in the alley, Nishimura realized that he didn't want to die. I guess it wasn't until this moment that he had such a strong opinion on the matter. The ending is left ambiguous so we'll never know if anybody came to help him.
Ishikawa/Niimi
Ishikawa was a friend to Nishimura, and they used to work in a team to pickpocket. Ishikawa was the closest thing to a good friend that Nishimura had. Throughout the book, it was obvious that Nishimura held Ishikawa in high esteem.
Nishimura involved himself in Kizaki's robbery because Ishikawa had asked him, and he heeded Ishikawa's advice to leave right after they'd done the deed. After finding out the truth behind Ishikawa's disappearance/death, Nishimura developed a hatred for Kizaki, when before, he only viewed him neutrally.
I think Nishimura's relationship with Ishikawa was one of those subtle things that fleshed out Nishimura as a person.
Kizaki
Kizaki was a gang boss who seemed to pride himself on being something of a mastermind. Throughout the book, he was ordering around his various henchmen, but we never really got to see the big picture of how they affected one another. It would've been interesting to find out, but from Nishimura's point of view, he would've died without knowing anyway.
Kizaki had kind of a god complex. He enjoyed controlling other people's lives. But he didn't find joy in having the power to control them, he found joy in being the one to set the rule. Does that make sense?
No matter how much anyone begged, Kizaki would not have spared them once he'd decided that he'd kill them. It was an interesting take on power.
Shoplifting boy
This boy was first spotted by Nishimura when he was shoplifting with his mother, but not doing a good job of it. Later on, he repeatedly came to ask Nishimura for help, mostly because he needed to buy things but didn't know how to do it.
Nishimura hated teaching the boy how to shoplift and pickpocket, because he knew it was a bad profession. He himself was always living life on the edge and he knew it wasn't a good way to live. But the boy was persistent and Nishimura had nothing else to offer him, so he gave in every time.
In the end, Nishimura had a talk with the boy's mother about putting him in a children's home, as the boy wanted to leave and Nishimura had no interest in caring for the boy (also because he knew he was going to be in danger). But that might've been the most humane thing he did for the boy. Again, it shows us that Nishimura isn't a guy devoid of morals. He just does what he needs to get by.
Boy's mother
The boy's mother was shown to be unstable and unreliable. She worked as a prostitute and had an abusive boyfriend. It's clear that she never defended her son in the face of her boyfriend, and in the end, it was shown that she didn't care for her son at all.
The mother was also kind of...shameless? She didn't hide the fact that she was easily affected by money. When Nishimura told her he'd give her money to send the boy to a group home, she jumped at the chance and dreamed about going on a vacation.
Themes
Stealing
I think stealing was actually presented in a sort of neutral context in this novel. Nishimura just treated it as his profession. He treated it like a regular day job to grumble about.
Only when the boy asked to learn from Nishimura, did he consider the morality of stealing. Even then, he only considered the career aspect of it, as in whether it was a safe and easy job, rather than whether stealing money from people was good or bad.
I think Nishimura did say that he tended to steal from rich people anyway, so I guess that's why his conscience was clear.
The thing about pickpocketing in this novel was that it was described in a way that made it seem so easy? Nishimura would put his hand in people's jackets and steal them, and it's kind of hard to believe that he wouldn't be found out without having a visual to see it in action.
Power
As I mentioned, Kizaki kind of had a god complex, but more in the sense that he wanted to control fate rather than lives. It's a subtle difference, but it's there.
He didn't revel in the way that people would beg him to spare them, he reveled in the way that people were powerless to stop him.
Like I said, it's an interesting take on power that I hadn't read before.
Life
By the end of the book, when Nishimura was laying in the alley, it was interesting to see how he came to the conclusion that he couldn't die yet, because there were still things he cared about in this world.
He often mused about dying and being with Saeko and Ishikawa, but when it came time to actually do it, he was afraid. I don't think he was afraid of dying, I think that there were things that he still wanted to do in life. And I liked that Nishimura came to that conclusion because it made me like him even more. His whole life, he just went with the flow. Little by little, the events in the book pushed and encouraged him to defy fate. Small things like learning that Kizaki had killed his best friend, like him trying to change the boy's fate for him, etc. These were small things that gave him the courage and the bravery to change things.
Overall
This was an interesting book, but like I said, it was too short to delve on any more than a few topics. Doesn't mean it was a bad book, it was just limited in scope, and that works for some people too.