TITLE: In The Miso Soup
AUTHOR: Ryu Murakami
GENRE: Fiction
PUBLISHER: Penguin Books
PAGES: 217
"It's not that people like him have given up on life." Frank went on. "They've given up trying to relate to others..."
Finally done with this book! It was pretty good! Suspenseful and creepy. The draw for me was Japan! I miss it. I love it. Anyway, I just don't end up reading many books with this dark and scary theme. Oddly enough, I am glad when I do pick up one of these books! My all time favorite still is The Collector. For creepy, scary, realism, though, In The Miso Soup, can only take second place.
So what did I enjoy? Kenji, our unfortunate Host and the seedy life of a sex industry that is popular in Japan drew me. Now this is not a book for those wanting lurid, sexual details of a night with a prostitute (sorry) but is more about a young guy (Kenji) trying to earn a living off foreigners by taking them around and helping them live out some sex fantasies. Instead he finds himself stuck with Frank, an American who leaves him fearful and with many questions.
The book got sluggish in places. Frank and Kenji talk, they go out and it could have been my impatience with moving through the story but, it felt long. Murakami really does a great job at making the reader live in the moment!
In the end, I felt sad. The book isn't something that has a sad or happy ending, but just is. I totally recommend this book and now I'll be looking into other books from this author.
I give this a 4 out of 5.
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