Out in The Roundtable

Sep 17, 2018 Henk rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, japanese-literature

A slow moving tale of misogyny and loneliness, that in the end disappointed me
I read this novel 13 years ago and now dropped it two stars down due to the uneven, rather repulsive ending and the slow moving pace of this "thriller". The story doesn't warrant 500 pages.

“You know," she murmured, "we're all heading straight to hell."
"Yes," said Masako, giving her a bleak look. "It's like riding downhill with no brakes."
"You mean, there's no way to stop?"
"No, you stop all right - when you crash.”

Masak A slow moving tale of misogyny and loneliness, that in the end disappointed me
I read this novel 13 years ago and now dropped it two stars down due to the uneven, rather repulsive ending and the slow moving pace of this "thriller". The story doesn't warrant 500 pages.

“You know," she murmured, "we're all heading straight to hell."
"Yes," said Masako, giving her a bleak look. "It's like riding downhill with no brakes."
"You mean, there's no way to stop?"
"No, you stop all right - when you crash.”

Masako (badass main character), Yoshi (older widow who takes care of her mother in law), Yayoi (pretty but been abused by her husband) and Kuniko (younger woman deep in debt) work in a lunch box packaging facility. They do the nightshift to earn some more, because part time jobs don't really earn all that much otherwise.
All people around the four main characters are damn right awful, including their family members.
The tale of poverty and loan sharks is a bleak one, especially combined with the seemingly universal misogyny, occurrences of domestic violence and even attempted rape.
Also the women, despite their heavy night shifts, still are universally expected to take care of domestic life. They are essentially all taken for granted by others, or try feebly to exert some power over others in response to how their environment treats them.

This is the background for Yayoi killing her husband, and this common thread of misery leads the others to help her in disposing the body. Naturally this has all kinds of ramifications, not least a sadistic gambler boss coming after the four women.

Around page 300 one of the character is musing, when inquired if she felt something changed inside her due to the help she gave with the dissecting of Kenji, that no, nothing changed, because she always seems to be expected to be responsible for all shitty jobs anyway.
You feel sorry for them (except Kuniko) and can understand how the desperate lack of money and agency leads them to their actions. That is what Natsuo Kirino does expertly, with some perspective on how immigrants are treated in homogenous Japan as and added social commentary that really still feels timeless and relevant today.

The language in Out feels effective at best, not really polished, but clearly communicates the dreary circumstances the characters find themselve in.
A device that comes back is that literally everyone constantly seems busy with smoking, constantly and everywhere, it’s nowhere functional to the plot and started to feel as a filler.
The entire book feels very slow for a thriller in my opinion.
The ending, with a final explosion of violence (a twice depicted rape amongst other things) and a kind of weird Stockholm syndrome, really grated me. ...more

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Apr 07, 2015 El rated it it was ok

Shelves: 21st-centurylit

I cannot for the life of me put my finger on what it is about this book that rubs me slightly the wrong way. It could be as simple as I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as other readers have, but I think there's more to it. And it's probably a combination of things - the fact that the relationship between the women is clunky, as is their dialogue; the fact that people (readers) think that anytime a female protagonist commits violent acts in literature, it immediately is labeled as feminist; the fa I cannot for the life of me put my finger on what it is about this book that rubs me slightly the wrong way. It could be as simple as I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as other readers have, but I think there's more to it. And it's probably a combination of things - the fact that the relationship between the women is clunky, as is their dialogue; the fact that people (readers) think that anytime a female protagonist commits violent acts in literature, it immediately is labeled as feminist; the fact that there were moments that bordered on ridiculous, and not in a good way, and I couldn't decide if it was intentional or not.

It's a fine enough story, and should have been interesting: Four women who have become somewhat-friends working the night shift at a factory making boxed lunches in Tokyo, all of them stuck in the routines of their craptastic lives, until one of them snaps - and rightly so. She asks for her friends' help, they give it, and the story continues. I think had this been the story alone, it might have been a better read overall.

But then there was this other stuff that came up that I understand were there to point out how life sucks for women in Japan (though obviously this isn't just going on in Japan), and so these sections actually came across as being rather heavy handed. The violence doesn't bother me, the gore doesn't bother me, the sex doesn't bother me. But it also didn't feel necessary here. Yeah, yeah, stuff about society and in-your-face and blah blah blah. I get it. But that's also why it felt so clunky and unnecessary. Sometimes when you're trying to make a point, less is more. Sometimes you can just talk too much and ruin what you're trying to say. That's what I felt happened here.

I am glad there's a lot of love for this book. I'm just not one to share it. It turns out I liked it better than I thought I would at roughly the 100 page mark, but I'm still disappointed I didn't dig it as much as other readers.

Has anyone seen the 2002 Japanese movie based on this book? I cannot seem to find it on Netflix, and I hear rumor that they're talking about making an Americanized version at some point. Because Hollywood needs another movie like this? Whatever. ...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Lark Benobi rated it really liked it

Shelves: ruthless-books, bookclub, japan, joyful-indulgences

I enjoyed it both as a psychological study, and also as acerbic social commentary. It's far more thought-provoking than most thrillers but just as effortless to read. ...more

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Dec 04, 2016 Wendy rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery-suspense, audiobooks, in-translation, girls-rock-the-boys, nightmare-fuel, japan

I flew through this morbid little page-turner about a group of female coworkers, each struggling to make ends meet in the seedy Tokyo suburbs, and the lengths they will go for cash or to help cover for a friend who murders her gambling, abusive husband. Masako, the story's main focus, is a character I wish I saw more of: middle-aged, clever, blunt, and kind of a badass. She manages to simultaneously be a cold fish, horrid mother, shrewd businesswoman, and the *best friend ever*. While she does s ...more

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Jan 06, 2019 Petra rated it really liked it

Dark, dark, dark. Suspenseful, interesting, twisted.
Four women take matters of their lives into their own hands. What starts by accident, grows into personal choices and the consequences thereof.
This is a suspenseful story that had me turning the pages and not knowing which direction the story would take. There is enough said about the storyline in the blurb and other reviews that I won't rehash them here. I will add that the less you know about this story going in, the more engaging it will b ...more

2 likes · Like · see review