Jealous teen welcomes sister's death Reviewed by David
Cotner
Sunday, March 25, 2007
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Grotesque
By Natsuo Kirino; translated by Rebecca Copeland
KNOPF; 467 PAGES; $24.95
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Outwardly, Natsuo Kirino's new novel, "Grotesque," is a
mystery novel, set in Japan after the turn of the millennium.
The story revolves around the murder of Yuriko, the
usuriously vacant and beautiful younger sister of the
nameless narrator, and the subsequent and related murder of
Kazue, the narrator's less attractive but scholastically
driven schoolmate. Both women have fallen from grace to the
rock-bottom pit of whoredom. The narrator is possessed with
an unstoppable anhedonia. She's unable to enjoy even the most
basic interactions with men, and she imagines all the
possible gross and hairy implications of any relationship
that might result. As the novel unfolds, the narrator's
lifelong envy for Yuriko's beauty reaches an almost
operatically venomous pitch. In fact, "Grotesque" is a
vengefully mesmerizing obituary written in the voice of a
woman who is often a total stranger to the women she envies.
She views their lives through the covetous prism of her
shortcomings, angrily re- dissecting memories shot through
with corrosive emotions.
rest at
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/25/RVG5SOL94H1.DTL&hw=kirino&sn=001&sc=1000
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