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Dec 17, 2009

Yulia rated it:

A literary page-turner as timely as when it first came out, this biting critique of Japan's social and economic underclass begins when three female co-workers are forced to confront the act of a friend against her abusive husband, but evolves into a blistering exposé on those whose stories are never told: the unseen night-shift factory workers who make Japan's endless supply of box lunches; women who are swamped in credit-card debt but cannot live off their looks, youth, or father's paychecks as More...

7 comments like (18 people liked it)

May 06, 2008

Shannon rated it:

There's just something about Japan that produces the grittiest, darkest, scariest, most realistic horror, psychological thriller, and suspense. The seedy underbelly of Japanese society is perhaps so successfully portrayed because so little has been embellished. And with the dark, empty surburban streets, so much is possible, so much can go unnoticed. In Natsuo Kirino's wonderful crime novel, Out, a sharp social commentary on Japan's patriarchal society and the situation for women and foreigners More...

0 comments like (21 people liked it)

Oct 12, 2007

Amy rated it:

Natsuo Kirino is hard-core. This book starts out with a kind've "accidental" murder of a husband, then the wife asks her three factory buddies to help her out with getting rid of the body and coming up with a story. You ever want to know how to slice and dice somebody, there's an awful lot of detail in here. But the point is, it's 4 very different women trying to deal with that, and then the fall-out. Kirino gives you a snapshot of the gender roles in Japanese society, and what's roili More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 28, 2010

Tressa rated it:

Out by Natsuo Kirino is a brilliant Japanese murder mystery that’s not much of a mystery at all, at least not a mystery in the sense that we don’t know whodunit. Whodunit is a pretty, young wife and mother of two named Yayoi who is fed up with her husband Kenji’s philandering ways, and decides to strangle him one night in an uncharacteristic moment of rage. Assured that her children heard nothing of the struggle, she calls a friend who works the night shift with her at a boxed lunch factory. As More...

27 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 24, 2008

Mike rated it:

Masako Katori; Kuniko Jonouchi; Yoshie Azuma; Yayoi Yamamoto; who are these normal people? Well, they all work the night shift at the local boxed-lunch factory. From midnight until 6 a.m. every 'day' they prepare these meals for the office workers and commuters of downtown Tokyo. It's not much of a life but they work well as a team and they always snatch the best part of the conveyor belt; the easiest jobs, if you will.

These four unassuming women are the heroines of Natsuo Kirino's n More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2007

Devin rated it:

Out marked my attempt to penetrate the world of crime fiction. I found it while browsing the bestsellers section of my local bookstore and picked it up mostly because of my interest in Japanese authors.

While I can't say it made me huge fan of the crime genre, I did find the book to have a cast of interesting characters- in particular Matsuko and Kuniko. Kuniko proved to be the most well developed (and, curiously enough, the most loathsome person even amongst rapists and murderers) More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

pinkgal rated it:

Read this book for the scene in the bento factory alone. Just do, and you'll never again eat a bento in Japan without thinking of it! This is the side of Japan the Japanese media never show! The Japanophiles with their obsession with tea ceremony, flower arrangement, anime, manga, samurai, ninja, clothing... this is yet another face of Japan and Natsuo Kirino does it wonderfully. Wage is low in a country that has some of the highest living standard costs in the world. The economy isn't kind to i More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Lucrecia rated it:

A gruesome, fascinating page-turner about working class Japanese women and their desperation. The insight into the characters' psyches is brilliant. I didn't particularly like the way it ended--I thought the way Masako ended up relating to Satake was a bit over the top and not so believable--and there were parts that were so gory I felt nauseous, but overall it was a very satisfying read. (Thanks, Jill!)

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

spooky rated it:

this book was interesting on a national level, as well as a personal level. women doing a man's work for a lower price and incurring man's wrath. sexism in the work place, eastern style. the fixation on youth. and it was a fast, exciting read! the characters were relatable. i KNOW kuniko. the only part that lost me was the very end. if somebody can break this down for me i would make them 10 bento boxes.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 12, 2011

Becky rated it:

I wanted to like this one more than I actually did like it. The beginning of the story, learning about Yayoi, Yoshie, Masako, and Kuniko was interesting, and the death and immediate aftermath was interesting, but I just found myself losing interest shortly after that, and struggled to finish.

I think that this book would work for a lot of people, but I found it kind of disappointing. I found it hard to connect with these characters. I kept thinking how I would react and act and think More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

May 28, 2007

Bernie rated it:

Here is a gritty, compelling book about a Japanese woman who strangles her philandering husband, then recruits her co-workers at a factory to help her dispose of the body, and gets mired in a sea of lies upon lies. It reminded me of "Shallow Grave" in its darkness, and was a bit rough in the gruesome details - but utterly compelling.

Kirino is a much-heralded author in Japan, where they are fascinated by the dark side of life, and this novel won her the Grand Prix prize (Ja More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 15, 2010

BarkLessWagMore rated it:

This is a great book about a group of late shift female co-workers at a boxed lunch factory. It is extremely effective in portraying the desperation in their day to day lives and shows how even the most gruesome of deeds can become just another yucky job if the pay is good enough. It's so violent that, at times, it's almost funny and still very sad and frighteningly realistic as well. This was one of those impossible to put down books but it isn't for the faint of heart as it gets quite grisly.

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Aug 23, 2007

Ally rated it:

This is my favorite book. I almost didn't finish reading it, because the beginning is rather boring and bleak. I set it aside for a year, but after reading more good things about the author, I picked it up again and I am so glad I did!
From the perspective of an American reader, this book is refreshingly different from the usual crime novel. There are no completely "good" or "bad" characters, only those you root for and against. And by the end, some of that might cha More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 18, 2007

Anouilh rated it:

You'll never think of a bento box the same way again.

This book is a cool look into the minds of lots of characters, following the murder of an abusive husband and the attempts of four female lunch factory workers to "dispose" of the evidence. Level-headed Masako leads timid Yayoi, long-suffering Yoshie, and spoiled brat Kuniko in the cutting up and trashing of Yayoi's husband, a compulsive gambler. (Don't worry, I'm not spoiling anything.) After the police arrest the wrong More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 05, 2007

Angela rated it:

This book is full of amazingly WRONG situations and I thought it was amazing.

HOWEVER...

I may have thought it was amazing because I have lived in Japan for nearly three years and I felt like I could identify with the characters. I picked up on cultural subtleties that made me laugh and made me cringe. I rolled my eyes at Japanese women being Japanese women in the book and I cheered when they broke free from that mould - even though breaking free meant that they were ostr More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Michael rated it:

What an awesomely dark tale of revenge and paranoia!! Kirino so vividly describes the desolation and the lives of her characters, there are passages still with me 2 years and many many books since.

I waited on pins and needles for her next English book - in fact, I think she is only the second author I ever hunted down through her publisher to request a warning shot when the new book was coming out.

And come to think of it, I think they forgot to tell me. But I did More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2007

Deirdra rated it:

For the most part I really enjoyed this book. The characters are not the typical characters you encounter in a novel. They work in the shadows of an underground economy. They include factory workers that work the overnight shift, debt collectors, gamblers, and your not so average house wife. The main character Masako is particularly interesting. The ending was a bit unsettling, but unique none the less. I would highly recommend this book, especially for those with a macabre sensibility.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 27, 2007

Leslie rated it:

"Out" is essentially warped pulp fiction from a woman's perspective, served up Asian-style. Woven into the incredible plot are three Japanese obsessions: food, sex, and dismemberment. Okay, so it's not Dostoevsky, but if you're depraved like I am, you'll definitely enjoy the graphic (and creative!) depictions of torture and mutilation. A weird, and not especially well-written, novel, but strangely satisfying, not unlike peeling skin after a bad sunburn.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 21, 2007

Isabelle rated it:

Randomly bought in an airport... what a find! This is my first foray into the Japanese thriller world. The whole atmosphere was so entirely alien it made the story all the more disturbing. This is also a book about women who are not afraid of violence... also very disturbing.
I cannot wait to read another book by the author to see if she can duplicate the power and darkness of this novel.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 18, 2009

Dave rated it:

This book is about women in Japan, living in robotic obligation towards their homes, families and workplaces. They are ignored by their husbands, mistreated by their own children and even dismissed by the police. But it's also one of the most brutal and visceral books I've ever read. Natsuo Kirino does not mess around. She could could Stephen King a real run for his money, and without any fantasy whatsoever. If you dig horror and suspense and a good story with good characters, this book is a More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 19, 2011

Black Elephants rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 24, 2008

Jessica rated it:

Japanese novelists, known for mastering the art of human suffering with razor sharp subtlety (think Mishima's "Temple of the Golden Pavilion"), share the literary blade with writers who have modernized this "quiet brutality" which is so omnipresent in Japanese literature. Kirino's crime fiction novel "Out" entices with unsentimental murder and dismemberment (hey, if that's your thing), female backlash grounded in the fertile soil of Man's vices and the snare of clas More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 02, 2008

Valerie rated it:

Out contains some truly gruesome passages, and having finished it quickly, I was trying to decide whether I was more affected by the bloody bits or by the banal--but nevertheless gruesome--bits regarding everyday life in Japan. But as the days go by, I find my memory of the gruesome passages has faded almost entirely and I'm left with feeling depressed by the despairing conditions she depicts of everyday life under capitalism.

That's right--everyone else will talk about the gender r More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 11, 2007

Katie rated it:

Although this book is the same genre as many books I've enjoyed, I found it to be terribly boring. Since it was an award-winner in Japan, I'm betting the laborous writing style was more a product of the translation than the writing itself. In other words, the writing in the original Japanese was probably very well done, and the translator did his job of putting it into readable English, but it didn't flow as well as novels written in English. The words may have been a correct translation, but More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2008

Preeta rated it:

What a disappointing ending! At first, I was absolutely entralled by the characters and their various relationships. The first 3/4ths of the book are filled with so much texture - it felt like I was running my hands through a fabric store. Most intriguing are the female-female relationships ranging from trust to need to fear. How I hated Kuniko! How I rooted for Masako!

And then, this whole S&M dark and violent erotic stuff comes out, which threw the entire book in downward-spiral More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 15, 2007

Nicole rated it:

A Japanese suspense/mystery. Boy. Quite different than any American suspense/mystery I've read (which, granted, aren't many). I was surprised at the graphic nature of it, more so because it was written by a Japanese woman--it just seems so against the stereotype that we are made to believe in. I also found it hard to get involved in any of the characters--I didn't feel one way or another towards them. I don't know if it is the translation aspect or just this style of writing, but it was very non More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Apr 25, 2010

Karen rated it:

Unlike anything I've ever read before, and I almost stopped reading it at a few points. First, the opening chapters were hard to follow with all the foreign names and descriptions of their boring job and boring lives. But when that's all over, things get really interesting, intense, and downright shocking at times. The beginning just sets it all up so you have an understanding of why these people acted like they did later on after one of the 4 female "friends" impulsively strangles More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2010

Julie rated it:

I enjoyed this and wish I hadn't left it on my TBR pile for so long. Certainly not for the faint-hearted but a good, gripping read.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 30, 2011

Naomi rated it:

Although this book was well written, I swear that the only two Japanese mysteries I have read have had almost identical storylines!! :/ I would continue on with them as I do enjoy them and, again, they are well written..hopefully once I expand my horizons of Japanese literature, so will their storylines!

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2008

The rated it:

Nothing beats Japanese horror.

(even though it's been translated into Danish) Yep, I have just finished reading Natsuo Kirino's Out - in Danish (imagine the trouble! but oh, it's so worth it!) and no, the book hasn't lost its main purpose to scare the hell out of people, not in the ghostly way, but in the creepy and nasty way as the book tells the story of four Japanese women who decide that killing and mutilating men is definitely not a big deal and as "evil" as everyone in More...

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