In the Miso Soup

This is one of the most shocking books I have ever read. At first it seems like an average tale of an American man looking for an authentic Japanese experience, guided by a local. In the middle of the book, Murakami describes the horrific actions of the American protagonist. It makes for very uncomfortable reading, but I couldn't look away. Although the description is graphic, it has to exist within the novel in order to throw the first third and the last third into relief. Without it, the rest of the book is a nothing. Very cleverly done. ( )

The narrator of In the Miso Soup is Kenji, a twenty-year old man who works as a freelance "nightlife guide." He escorts foreign tourists through the glittering maze of Tokyo's red light district, helping them find the entertainments and services they seek. The novel tales place over a three-day span, December 29-31, 1996. Kenji's client is an American named Frank, a man of imposing size and strength and, Kenji soon realizes, some very frightening characteristics and mannerisms. After the first two stops on their first night--a bar and peep show--it is obvious to Kenji that Frank is not what he claims to be, and Kenji even begins to suspect that this American may have been the one responsible for the grisly murder of a prostitute the previous evening.

Kenji's suspicious of Frank are, of course, well-founded, and we are soon in the midst of a grisly and suspenseful pshcyo-thriller. But from its second sentence on, it is also obvious that another purpose of the novel is to compare Japanese and American cultures. For example, Kenji observes:

What's good about Americans, if I can generalize a little, is that they have a kind of openhearted innocence. And what's not so good is that they can't imagine any world outside the States, or any value system different from their own. The Japanese have a similar defect, but Americans are even worse about trying to force others to do whatever they themselves believe to be right. American clients often forbid me to smoke and sometimes even make me accompany them on their daily jogs. In a word, they're childish...

Much later in the novel Frank mirrors this argument, in a way, as he is relating to Kenji what a Peruvian prostitute had just explained to Frank. Pointing out that Japan may have lost wars, but, like the U.S., has never been invaded and forced to assimilate another culture, she explains...

...so the people at home never came face to face with an enemy who killed and raped their relatives and forced them to speak a new language. A history of being assimilated is one thing most countries in Europe and the New World have in common, so it's like a basis for international understanding. But the people in this country don't know how to relate to outsiders because they haven't had any real contact with them. That's why they're so insular.

Yet while Japan and the U.S. do have in common a certain degree of cultural smugness, albeit manifested in different ways, Kenji finds a number of sharp contrasts, including this observation:

I remember the American making this particular confession, and the way his voice caught when he said "accept it." Americans don't talk about just grinning and bearing it, which is the Japanese approach to many things. After listening to a lot of these stories, I began to think that American loneliness is a completely different creature from anything we experience in this country, and it made me glad I was born Japanese. The type of loneliness where you need to keep struggling to accept a situation is fundamentally different from the sort you know you'll get through if you just hang in there.

Loneliness is a theme Murakami returns to in describing the Tokyo sex trade. Most of the women working as prostitutes or participating in "compensated dating" are not in need of money, he claims, but simply lonely. Likewise most of their clients are not seeking sex as much as simple companionship, and an ever increasing number of them are willing to pay a prostitute just to have a long conversation fully clothed.

Yet it is the American, Frank, and not the Japanese who is the central figure in the novel. He is a psychotic of immense, almost supernatural, power and ability. Yet he is also fully aware of his own condition and discusses its origins at length with Kenji. Presumably he is representative of the ills of society as a whole, Japanese as well as American. He is the product of a culture obsessed with materialism, where parents are so devoted to their careers that they neglect their families, where neighbors never meet one another, and where children are desensitized by a surfeit of artificial stimulation.

Ending with a plea for cultural understanding and spiritual focus, In the Miso Soup is clearly meant to be a thoughtful novel and not just a crime thriller. Yet the novel's brevity doesn't allow for much development of the author's ideas, so it's not quite as satisfying or convincing as it might have been. ( )

http://www.cozylittlebookjournal.com/2007/04/in-miso-soup-by-ryu-murakami.html

This book was so good and so creepy at the same time. It would make a good movie. It’s definitely NOT for everyone. It's especially creepy because it's not clear what exactly happens at the end of the book.

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Does the creepy killer get away? Probably. Plus the description of the massacre--it will stay with me for a long time. ( )

I bought this book mainly because the author's last name was Murakami. I then came to find out that Ryu Murakami was no relation to Haruki Murakami. I was curious about this book because I've seen this author's name quite a bit. I took the book to the beach where my daughter tried to read it. She told me that she gave up halfway through because it made her nauseaous. Hey! It's a murder mystery, and it does get a bit grisly. Her finace then read it with wth no problem.

The story is of a young Japanese man named Kenji who works illegally as tourist guide to Japanese sex clubs. He is employed by Frank, an American man who purchases three nights of Kenji's services, much to the dislike of Kenji's girlfriend Jun who was planning on spending the Japanese New Year with her boyfriend. Frank is very strange, to say the least. The book has one very gory murder scene, but most of the story is simply the mesmerizing tale of how Frank keeps Kenji in his radar even when not with him. I found this an engaging tale and one of great weirdness. I liked it. ( )

Japanese noir. This was a strange book about a 20 year old man who works as an escort to men, mainly American, looking for a 'good time' in the outskirts of Tokyo.

The first half of the book was interesting, but as I got further into the book I started to get a little frustrated with the plot, particularly after the main incident happened. The characters could have been more interesting, and for me personally, I would have liked to have known more about life in Japan. ( )