In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami

In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Kenji is a nightlife guide, escorting foreign tourists – gaijin – around the Kabuki-cho red light district of Tokyo, with its hostess bars, peep shows, love hotels and other, darker, attractions. It’s not exactly a respectable line of work, but it pays well and after two years he knows most of the touts and club owners of the district, so it’s reasonably safe too. That is, until he meets Frank.

At first sight Frank appears to be a typical American abroad – overweight and loud mouthed, with a tendency towards exaggeration or outright lying, but Kenji has no idea just how depraved Frank will turn out to be, or how much danger he and his 16 year old girlfriend Jun will be placed in.

This book is brief, but highly atmospheric, painting a deft picture of the seedy and lonely side of the Tokyo demi-monde. The tension is ratcheted up to an almost unbearable degree before being released in an inevitably brutal and bloody way. The final third of the book winds down to an unexpectedly poignant conclusion.

Excellent, but extraordinarily gruesome Japanese noir.

View all my reviews.