Out (2005) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

• Masako Katori: protagonist. In her late forties/early fifties.
• Yoshie Azuma: Masako's co-worker. Widower in her late fifties; fastest worker on the line, nicknamed Skipper. Has bed-ridden mother-in-law at home.
• Kuniko Jonouchi: Masako's co-worker. 29.
• Yayoi Yamamoto: Masako's co-worker. Best-looking of the four friends and most attractive on their night shift of 100 or so. Masako has appointed herself her protector.
• Komada: company's tight lipped health inspector
• Nakayama: night foreman; 30; foul-mouthed and obsessed with quotas
• Satake: Add a description of this character.
• Kenji
• Kazuo Miyamori: Masako's male co-worker. Has darkish skin, a caved-in face, and a protruding forehead.
• Anna
• Kunimatsu
• Kinugasa
• Yoshiki
• Yoko
• Miki: Yoshi's daughter
• Sato
• Imai
• Tetsuya: Kuniko's live-in partner
• Yayol: Masako's co-worker. Wife of Kenji.
• Nobuki
• Kazue
• Komada
• Takashi
• Iguchi
• Reika
• Mika
• Mama
• Jumonji
• Soga
• Akira
• Alberto
• Nobuld
• Jumonii
• Masao
• Saga
• Chanel
• Hirosawa
• Tony Leung
• Granny
• Jumonli
• Musashi Murayama
• Yoshild

Quotes edit see section history

• “<p.1> The land was flat and the sky stretched in every direction.”

  Narrator

• “<p.2> Something in Kuniko's tone betrayed a hint of longing. Masako felt that Kuniko was somehow blocked, closed off, like a thick cloud cover obscuring the stars at night.”

  Narrator

• “<p.11> Adjusting the vents on the air-conditioner in her direction, she put down the top of the convertible, watching as it slowly withdrew like a snake shedding its skin. She loved this kind of moment when something ordinary could be made to seem dramatic and exciting. If only her whole life could be that way.”

  Narrator

• “In general, when she said goodbye to her friends at the factory, it was as if a heavy veil fell away, letting the real Kuniko show through.”

• “The feeling had been there from before. She shook her head and the naked womanin the mirror shook hers at well. It had definitely had been before;t was just that she'd never been able to put a name to it. As soon as she realized that it was "hatred", it had spread like a dark cloud and taken possession of her, so that now there was nothing else inside.(Yayoi)”

• “She could never have imagined then that this was the future that was waiting for them: a loser obsessed with a woman he could never have, a wife who detested him, and an unbridgeable gulf separating them.(Yayoi)”

• “She didn't know what she was hoping for; it seemd as though everything she said or did was as useless as sprinkling water on a scorching desert.(Masako)”

• “But in contrast to the rose-teinted world that followed along with her at the leisurelly pace of her bicycle, the rest of the world had a grimmer shade- the wet asphalt of the street, the trees on either side in their newish foliage, the tightly shuttered houses. Though the umbrella created a pink cocoon, her surroundings became more sinister and depressing. Somehow, this seemed like a symbol of her own life now that she had killed Kenji.(Yayoi)”

• “..she was struck by the familiar smell of home, like the scent of a puppy sleeping in the sun.(Yayoi)”

• “...an almost savage sense that she wanted to be quit of any superficial, changeable human relations. But here before her eyes was the one relationship that she couldn't change, and the thought made her feel utterly helpless.(Masako)”

• “Her sloppy, self-indulgent nature was all too obvious, as though you could see through her like a jellyfish.(Jumonji on Kuniko)”

• “People like that were blind to their own faults, having convinced themselves that everyone around them was out to get them. Once you developed that kind of paranoia, you didn't care what innocent bystander you dragged down with you.(Jumonji on Kuniko)”

• “"You know" she murmured, "we're all heading straight to hell.""Yes", said Masako, giving her a bleak look. "It's like riding downhill with no brakes.""You mean there's no way to stop?""No, you stop alrigt- when you crash."”

• “They simply went on- automatically, faithfully- going to work, taking care of the house and, in Masako's mind, gradually going to pieces.(Masako on her family)”

• “...she felt like a tennis ball being batted back and forth between two strong emotions. But how should a tennis ball behave? She had absolutely no idea.(Yayoi)”

• “She sighed as they sat down. The ceiling felt lower and heavier than usual....She suddenly realised she was wringing her hands as if she were wringing an invisible towel, hoping to squeeze from it the will-power she needed to help her hold out.(Yayoi)”

• “From his second-floor window, the city outside seemed to be divided between the places brilliantly lit by the midsummer sun and those sunk in shadow. The leaves on the trees lining on the road seemed to glow, the area beneath them just a smear of black. The figures of people hurrying along looked luminous, trailing dark shadows....the vertical strips of cloudless blue sky between the towers were almost too bright to look at, and he closed his eyes; but the image lingered on his retinas. (Satake)”

• “He didn't really want to watch anything;he just wanted to bathe in the meaningless artificial light.(Satake)”

• “Satake hated summer. It wasn't the heat that bothered him so much as the various signs of the season in the back streets of the city that brought back memories with them. .... Engulfed in the hot stench of the city, he found that the bounder between his inner and outer selves seemed to dissolve...The fetid air seeped in through his pores and soiled what was inside, while his simmering emotions leaked out of his body into the streets.”

• “He was reluctant to speak to anyone today, with the heat threatening to stir up his carefully suppressed memories; but he also felt the need for some distraction. This restless, ambivalent mood left him irritated;it was like his feelings about the city in summer- he hated the sweltering streets, but he knew he could never live anywhere else.(Satake)”

• “Through his sunglasses, the highway in the distance shimmered like a mirage.(Satake)”

• “It was as though a bubble of innocence had burst.(Anna)”

• “Thogh the sun had set, the heat and humidity lingered, as though the whole city were in a steam bath; the heat was wrapped inside, as if building under the skin of a grimy, middle-aged man with clogged pores.”

• “Like the skin that covered their bodies, his relationship with her was all on the surface.(Satake and Anna)”

• “So was this the premonition he'd had since morning? Of course they looked familiar-like every cop he'd ever seen....Somehow, without realising it, he'd wandered into some kind of deep shit, and he was sure that it wasn't going to be easy getting back out.... The old, dark dreams that he'd thoght were dead crept up his spine like an icy hand.(Satake)”

• “Something about that face on TV had bothered him, like biting into a grain of sand in the middle of an oyster.(Satake on Yayoi)”

• “It was evening and the car was packed. For Anna, who wasn't used to the crowds, it felt like being absorbed by a foreign body.”

• “Nevertheless, she could never quite shake the feeling she'd experience that day on the train; no matter how hard she tried to ignore it, it always seemd to be lurking nearby, like a stray cat.(Anna)”

• “His eyes. His eyes were like well-water. Anna remembered a photo she'd seen in a magazien somewhere of a dark pool hidden away in a high mountain valley. The water was steel grey, still and cold, and Anna had imagined that in its depths sheltered strange creatures in the tangles of water grass. No swimmer would go near a pool like that, nor any boat. At right , the black crater would suck up the starlight, while its strange inhabitants watched unnoticed from the depths. Maybe the man beside her had chosen his shiny costume to keep people from looking into his own dark pool.(Anna on Satake)”

• “Fate is what happens to you in spite of all your plans.(Satake)”

• “"So if a woman is good-looking, that's enough for you?" she asked."That's enough for any man"(Anna-Satake)”

• “She remembered when she'd bought it. She wanted to indulge herself with something special, for her and no one else, so she'd gone to a pet shop and picked out the prettiest dog she could find. Maybe it was the same with men: they wanted women the same way she'd wanted the poodle.(Anna)”

• “Once, a while ago, she'd compared her career at the credit union to an empty, spinning washing machine, but now she realized it had probably been the same at home.(Masako)”

• “Men sometimes cut up bodies, too, but they usually do it to conceal the victim's identity or because it gives them some kind of sick thrill; women do it because they can't carry it whole.........and perhaps because they had the experience of childbirth, women seemed to feel more closely connected to the whole process of life and death, which mught be give them the nerve to go through with it.”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Tokyo
• Sao Paulo
• Shinjuku
• Corolla
• Japan
• Brazil
• Koganei Park
• Shanghai
• Sao Paolo
• Issey
• Shibuya: Where Kuniko and Tetsuya met.
• Shin-Oume Expressway: expressway she takes to get to work.
• Musashi-Murayama District: where the boxed-lunch factory she works at is located
• Kunitachi
• Higashi Yamamoto
• Bel Fiore: pub Kuniko goes to for a job interview in Ch. 2.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• baccarat: a card game, played at casinos and by gamblers
• oolong tea: Describe this term.
• cirrhosis

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Natsuo Kirino

Other Contributors:

1. Stephen Snyder (Translator)
2. Bernadette Dunne (Narrator)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Mystery Writers of Japan Award (1998: Best Novel, Winner)
• Edgar Award (Finalist, 2004: Best Novel)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Thrillers › Suspense
• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Mystery › Women Sleuths
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Action & Adventure
• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › Japanese
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary

More Books Like This edit see section history