Pulp Poem of the Week

There's no

such thing

as a nice

detective.

Natsuo Kirino

Out

1997

(translated by Stephen Snyder)

Book Review: Natsuo Kirino, Out (1997)

Take your favorite vintage noir PBO, transfer its setting to present-day Tokyo, turn your loner anti-hero into a quartet of anti-heroines, and the result is Out. This brilliant combination of Everyman noir and psycho noir is by far the best Japanese neo-noir that I have read. Highly, highly recommended. Grade: A

Book Review: Natsuo Kirino, Real World (2006)

Near the end of Real World, a detective is talking to one of the book's teenaged protagonists. The detective speculates about what the teenagers may have done and why. The teenager replies, "Don't you think that's taking it a little too far?" The detective agrees and says, "I don't think even you all would do something that stupid." But the detective's speculations are absolutely right, and she sums up precisely what I was thinking as I read this book: what a bunch of stupid teenagers. So I felt my reaction was validated by the detective's comment while at the same time I naturally wondered if Kirino were making the point that some of us have gotten too old to recall just how stupid teenagers can be. If that is the case, then consider me reminded. Grade: C-