Grotesque
By Natsuo Kirino, Rebecca Copeland (Translator)
Publication Year: 2007 (first published in Japanese in 2003)
Type: Fiction
Genre: contemporary, crime
Read on 2018-01-10
View additional specs on this book in Muhan’s 2018 Reading Survey ➞
★★★☆☆
This book was, indeed, grotesque - so much so I forbade my 14-year-old little sister from reading it! The events herein are so horrible I truly just wanted the book to be over. I don’t have the stomach for gruesome crime and child prostitution.
Also, as I discuss in the videos below, Natsuo Kirino’s books are all translated into English by different people, leading to (in my experience) great inconsistencies in the quality of the writing and presentation of cultural context for basic comprehension. My favourite book by her is Out translated by Stephen Snyder - not entirely because of Snyder’s translation of course, but some of her other books have truly been butchered by bad translations (AHEM PHILIP GABRIEL AHEM stick to Murakami buddy).
See me talk about Natsuo Kirino and (mis)translations of her books here!
More Natsuo Kirino and translated Japanese fiction here!
