false 25366 12 Natsuo Kirino made a spectacular fiction debut on these shores with the publication of Edgar Award-nominated <i>Out</i> "Daring and disturbing . . . Prepared to push the limits of this world . . . Remarkable"--<i>Los Angeles Times</i>). Unanimously lauded for her unique, psychologically complex, darkly compelling vision and voice, she garnered a multitude of enthusiastic fans eager for more. In her riveting new novel <i>Grotesque</i>, Kirino once again depicts a barely known Japan. This is the story of three Japanese women and the interconnectedness of beauty and cruelty, sex and violence, ugliness and ambition in their lives. Tokyo prostitutes Yuriko and Kazue have been brutally murdered, their deaths leaving a wake of unanswered questions about who they were, who their murderer is, and how their lives came to this end. As their stories unfurl in an ingeniously layered narrative, coolly mediated by Yuriko's older sister, we are taken back to their time in a prestigious girls' high school--where a strict social hierarchy decided their fates&#8212;and follow them through the years as they struggle against rigid societal conventions. Shedding light on the most hidden precincts of Japanese society today, <i>Grotesque </i>is both a psychological investigation into the female psyche and a classic work of noir fiction. It is a stunning novel, a book that confirms Natsuo Kirino's electrifying gifts. 1223552 2003 Grotesque total:839|5:133|4:290|3:257|2:112|1:47| 839 2867 1369 220 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 5 6 false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Apr 05 21:32:20 -0700 2007 Fri Mar 14 16:41:19 -0700 2008 And for a while she reuses the opening idea when other characters are introduced. An innovative technique.

I think this book went ove...more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 4 4 false Mon Mar 05 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Aug 26 09:55:44 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 26 09:56:34 -0700 2008 more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 4 3 false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Jul 11 20:45:34 -0700 2007 Fri Mar 14 14:33:04 -0700 2008 more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 3 1 false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 24 13:21:10 -0700 2008 Wed Feb 18 23:39:46 -0800 2009 Through recollections, confessions and diaries, we follow the destinies of 4 Japanese girls who meet in an exclusive Junior High School and drift apart through adulthood only to be reunite...more...]]> 863847 0099488930 9780099488934 45 16 3.42 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/863847.Grotesque 5 1 true Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 22 04:35:33 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 01 07:59:27 -0700 2008 more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 3 1 false Mon Mar 24 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 25 09:36:25 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 25 09:49:27 -0700 2008
"Grotesque" is an apt title. Essentially, "Grotesque" is about hatred and confusion, richly illustrated with stories ranging from murder to incest -- I imagine Kirino's an...more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 4 1 false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 20 06:35:09 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 26 03:15:14 -0700 2008 more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 3 1 false Tue Feb 19 13:12:59 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 24 02:34:15 -0700 2008
English-language marketing folk always get it wrong with Japanese fiction. They always have to call it a 'murder mystery' or a 'thriller', respectively describing the 'genre' of Kirino's two books in English GROTESUQUE and OUT.

Well, they may have been c...more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 4 2 false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Jul 25 17:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 25 17:10:39 -0700 2007 more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 4 2 false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 11 22:05:29 -0700 2007 Fri Mar 14 04:26:23 -0700 2008 more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 4 1 false Sat Mar 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Feb 06 15:27:44 -0800 2008 Sun Mar 23 12:50:09 -0700 2008 Out. She's a masterful writer, though, so I was eventually pulled in. I love the way she weaves together her stories, taking you from one character to the next, leaving you wanting more in one part and then giving it...more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 4 1 false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 27 13:22:28 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 22 08:03:02 -0700 2007 more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 3 1 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 23 17:13:23 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 23 17:13:45 -0800 2008
I’m not sure why this book was as long as it is–the storyline itself is not that epic or groundbreaking, even though...more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 5 0 false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Aug 30 06:56:49 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 30 07:05:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 2 0 false Sun Aug 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 09 20:30:17 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 09 20:36:39 -0700 2009
along with one enormously unreliable narrator, we also get significant sections written by (at least) four other characters, each of whom have a different story to tell us. however, none of them are compelling enough narrators to actually make me care who's telli...more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 5 0 false Thu Mar 05 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 18:24:54 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 05 07:17:51 -0800 2009 Grotesque was in the mystery section of the library, and while there is a mystery going on within its plot, its less about that than the psychological grotesqueness of human beings. I agree with the dust jacket's description of this book being "classic noir" and if I were to give it a labe...more...]]> 564709 1843432706 9781843432708 5 2 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175833015m/564709.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/564709.Grotesque 3 0 false Wed Feb 25 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Sep 07 07:46:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 12 09:28:31 -0700 2009 more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 3 1 false Fri Aug 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 03:34:16 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 28 02:30:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 2 1 false Mon Aug 25 10:37:48 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 25 10:40:03 -0700 2008 25366 1400044944 9781400044948 714 184 3.42 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685240m/25366.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25366.Grotesque 3 0 false Wed Mar 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 13:24:15 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 13:49:42 -0800 2009 Out - while the excruciating competitiveness of this world is depicted down to every harsh detail, there wasn't a lot of action. It's mostly talk, or inner ruminations, or going over the same event from multiple perspectives (which was actually fun, as these are some perversely unreli...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=863847