Rob Kitchin's Blog, page 29

Lazy Sunday Service

Picked up two new books in the local bookshop yesterday. James Benn's The First Wave and Kathryn Miller Haines' The Winter of Her Discontent. It'll probably be a few weeks before I read either as I have a several books on the TBR.

My posts this week
Review of Hiroshima Boy by Naomi Hirahara
Review of Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace
Everything that you do is you

Everything that you do is you

‘The thing you have to remember, Sally, is that everything that you do is you, even if it’s the lies you tell. Even if it’s an act, it’s what you want people to believe you are. You can’t escape yourself.’

‘What?’

‘You can act like someone you’re not, but you’re still you.’

‘You’re saying I’m a phoney?’

‘I’m saying that you can never be a phoney. You’re always authentic. Even if you think you’re not. Or you’re trying not to be.’

‘So?’

‘So, just accept yourself for who you are.’

‘I’m thirteen, Dad? I’m meant to make your life hell!’




A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words.

Review of Hiroshima Boy by Naomi Hirahara (2018, Prospect Park Books)

Mas Arai was born in the US but spent his youth in Japan and was present in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb detonated. He then returned to the US only returning briefly to meet his bride. Now 86 he returns to Hiroshima with the ashes of his best friend, Haruo, travelling to a small offshore island where his friend’s sister lives in a nursing home. Not long after he arrives the ashes are stolen from his room and he discovers the body of a teenager in a bay. He recognizes the teenager as a fellow passenger on the ferry to the island and although the police are investigating the death, Mas can’t help poking about in the case while also trying to relocate his friend’s ashes.

Hiroshima Boy is the seventh and final book in the Mas Arai series. It can be read as a standalone and I’ve not read any of the other instalments. In this outing, Mas – now aged 86 – travels to Hiroshima from California to return the ashes of his best friend. Although a US citizen, Mas spent much of his childhood, including the war years, in the city, being present when it was devastated by the atomic bomb. He’s soon playing detective after his friend’s ashes are stolen from his guest room in a nursing home and he discovers the body of a teenager. Hirahara spins a quite gentle tale that pivots around these two mysteries, with Mas making a nuisance of himself as he searches for answers, befriends locals, rescues a stray cat, and takes on rowdy kids. The tale drifts along at a pleasant cadence, with the focus being as much about Mas and his journey back to the city of his youth as the mysteries. Indeed, there’s little suspense, tension or surprise, but it’s nonetheless an enjoyable, poignant read.

Review of Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace (2007, Faber and Faber)

August, 1946. The bodies of two women are discovered in Shiba Park in Tokyo. Detective Minami is assigned to investigate the death of one of the women. Like Japan itself, Minami is suffering a kind of post-traumatic stress disorder. Struggling to survive on low wages, fighting political and personal battles inside the police force, dependent for drugs and supplies from a black market boss, and haunted by his mistress and atrocities committed in China, Minami struggles to retain his sanity and make progress on the case. Suspicious of everyone and scheming his own games, he ploughs on with dogged determination to solve the murder case despite the general apathy and opposition to his cause.

Tokyo Year Zero is the first book in what was to be a trilogy of books set in post-war Japan, though only two have been published. This book is set in 1946, though it seems to shuttle back-and-forth with earlier events, though this is difficult to determine at times given the fractured nature of the storytelling. The tale follows the exploits of Detective Minami as he investigates with colleagues a series of deaths into young women – indeed, it is a fictionalized account of a real serial murderer case in which ten women were raped and killed by a former imperial soldier. The story is infused with paranoia, scheming, and in-fighting as the police try to solve the case against the backdrop of a broken society and purges of officers no longer seen politically fit to serve. Minami has his own secrets to keep hidden, secrets that are destroying his mental state. Peace tries to capture this mental pressure and breakdown through the style and structuring of the text, with staccato often poetic prose, many phrases extensively repeated, and whole passages structured so as to have shortening line length down the page. While the prose did conjure up the paranoia and mental struggle, it was often grating and hard work, and the telling lacked clarity or was ambiguous in places, though I suspect that was deliberate. The result is a repetitive, fractured, messy police procedural and downfall full of visceral imagery. It’s an interesting read, but the literary pretentions did make it a struggle at times.

Lazy Sunday Service

Somewhat coincidentally I ended up reading two books set in Japan last week - one immediately after the end of the war (Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace), and one set in present day but in the long shadow of the dropping of the atomic bomb (Hiroshima Boy by Naomi Hirahara). A huge contrast in styles: hardboiled literary noir and cozy mystery.

My posts this week

Review of Brothers in Blood by Amer Anwar
It was a bust!

It was a bust!

‘Go, go, go, go, go!’

Kenny slammed the passenger door shut.

Another thumped closed in the back.

‘Where’s Tommy?’ Connor asked.

‘He’s down. Just drive!’

‘And the money?’

‘It was a bust! They knew we were coming.’

‘And we’re just going to leave Tommy?’

‘Connor,’ the man in the rear said, ‘just fuckin’ drive.’

‘Fuck!’

The back wheels squealed as they shot forward.

Ahead flashing blue lights appeared.

‘Take the next right,’ Kenny instructed.

‘But …’

‘Just fuckin’ do it!’

The car turned tightly, still accelerating, then shrieked to a stop.

‘I tried …’

‘Fuckin’ roadworks. Everyone for themselves. Run.’



A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words.

It's was a bust!

‘Go, go, go, go, go!’

Kenny slammed the passenger door shut.

Another thumped closed in the back.

‘Where’s Tommy?’ Connor asked.

‘He’s down. Just drive!’

‘And the money?’

‘It was a bust! They knew we were coming.’

‘And we’re just going to leave Tommy?’

‘Connor,’ the man in the rear said, ‘just fuckin’ drive.’

‘Fuck!’

The back wheels squealed as they shot forward.

Ahead flashing blue lights appeared.

‘Take the next right,’ Kenny instructed.

‘But …’

‘Just fuckin’ do it!’

The car turned tightly, still accelerating, then shrieked to a stop.

‘I tried …’

‘Fuckin’ roadworks. Everyone for themselves. Run.’



A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words.

Review of Brothers in Blood by Amer Anwar (2018, Dialogue Books)

Having served five years in prison for manslaughter, Zaq Khan is working in a builders’ yard run by a Sikh family. When the owner’s daughter goes missing, supposedly run off with a Muslim, Zaq is blackmailed into searching for her. The pressure is turned up a notch by her bullying brothers, who are keen to find Rita before her father. Zak begins his hunt for Rita, starting with her workplace and friends, but he soon realises that there is more to her disappearance than first appears. To make matters worse he’s set upon by two groups of young men, the fighting skills he learned in prison keeping him in one piece. What seemed like a relatively straightforward task becomes increasingly fraught with danger. Moreover, finding Rita is unlikely to lead to safety.

Brothers in Blood is set in and around Southall in West London, its cast the area’s Asian community. Zaq Khan is a young Muslim trying to put his life back together again after serving five years for manslaughter. When the daughter of the Sikh owner of the builders’ yard where he works goes missing, Zak is blackmailed into trying to find her. Refusing an arranged marriage, Rita Brar has supposedly run off with a Muslim; a cardinal sin in the eyes of her patriarch father. Her brothers seem particularly keen to find her. Reluctantly, Zaq sets about the task, using the help of his best friend, Jags, and a local gang of car thieves. It’s soon clear there’s more going on than a young woman trying to avoid a marriage not of her choosing, and Zak’s got bruises from two brawls. Anwar charts Zaq’s quest to find Rita and deal with the wider drama surrounding her disappearance. The writing is a bit flat at times, there’s bit too much tell vis-à-vis show, and a couple of the plot devices felt a bit strained (the blackmail hook and Zaq’s ability to take a beating and also give one). However, this offset by a well-charted plot with some nice intersecting threads leading to a decent denouement, a lot of forward momentum, and nice characterisation. It’s also refreshing to read some England-based crime fiction that’s ethnically diverse. Overall, an enjoyable read with an engaging plot.

Lazy Sunday Service

Making some progress on books. Just completing edits on one after reviews and nudging another towards a first draft, though there's still two or three months of work to be done. After a run of edited books, the plan is to switch back to authored ones for a while. I've a stack I'd like to write - the issue will be time!

My posts this week
Review of The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
Review of The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves
September reviews
Capsized

Capsized

He lost his footing as the boat unexpectedly shift out from under him.

The cold emptied his lungs of air.

He was sinking in an ice bath.

Then he was rising, his legs kicking.

The hull of the boat was dancing on the waves several feet away.

There was no sign of his shipmate.

‘John!’

‘I’m okay! Get to the boat!’

He started to swim, his clothes and limbs leaden.

The boat bobbed further away.

John’s head appeared above the keel.

‘Swim!’

It was no use, the distance was widening.

‘Kevin!’

Shivering, he waved and watched the boat drift away.



A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words.