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Liked It “Twisted and events in the book were unexpected. Just my kind of stories. Haha. Recommended to those who want something out of the ordinary but can bear the psychotic themes.” see full review » see other reviews » |
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1 of 1 members found this review helpful“"Piercing" begins with a powerful and disturbing scene: Kawashima seems to be a content family man, with a wife and a baby. But for ten days he's been getting up at night and staring at the sleeping infant. With an ice pick in his hand. Worried: "Not again".
Enigmatic wrote this review Friday, July 17 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Yes, the one secret he's been keeping even from his wife is that he once stabbed a woman with an ice pick. And that urge seems to be coming back -Kawashima does admit to having night terrors- just like Chiaki (a prostitute and Kawashima's alleged victim) suffers from "the Nightmare", an episode she's endured seven times. In both cases, it's clear that it's a consequence of their horrible childhoods. They seem to have survived their childhoods remarkably well, considering, for example, what happened to most of the kids Kawashima was raised with, but, like Japan itself, appearances can be deceptive.
Indeed, Murakami presents an intersecting picture of Japan's own disillusionment of duality; a society where on the surface all is very formal and orderly, but which covers up and turns a blind eye to a great deal. It's also a duality he finds in his characters: the central ones here, the graphic designer Kawashima Masayuki and the prostitute Chiaki, who were both abused in their childhoods and have clearly not gotten over that, despite leading what appear to me or less ordinary lives.
"Piercing" is a pretty gory and often unpleasant tale, but Murakami does a fairly good job with it. Both Kawashima and Chiaki are convincing characters, and the contrast to Kawashima's domestic life is particularly well presented. There's a bit too much reliance on the altered-mind-states of his characters -their losing control- but on the other hand it is completely plausible that they have suffered such intense psychological damage which occasionally manifests itself in these ways.
The plotting of the psychological thriller that "Piercing" follows is little short of immaculate. The shortness and the fast-paced of the narrative show up the crafted symmetry of the principal characters: predator/victim, piercer/piercee, mutilator/self-mutilator. More importantly, Murakami is adept at portraying what happens when these roles fall apart and the certainties of a life, however distorted, disappear. It's a good, rather-old fashioned skill, but perhaps, the most lingering aftermath of this novel is its true representation of how a tragicomedy functions.”
“Very cunning, loathsome, ugly and twisted. Perfectly Murakami. To the point I wanted to throw the book onto wall.”
twoleggedcoffeedrinker wrote this review Friday, June 5 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This book is very sick. I borrowed it from the library because I was in the mood to read a gripping thriller, but the reason I didn't put this book down was so that I could finish it as quickly as possible! Normally, I am not a stickler for political correctness and of course I believe in freedom of speech, but this book made me slightly sick. Maybe that's because I have a weird phobia of achilles tendons, which this book brings up in a disturbing way. Anyway, I ergret reading "Piercing" because, quite frankly, it freaked me out (and not in a way that makes me think). ”
ZOEY P wrote this review Tuesday, October 28 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Twisted and events in the book were unexpected. Just my kind of stories. Haha. Recommended to those who want something out of the ordinary but can bear the psychotic themes.”
Dustin B wrote this review Saturday, July 5 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“can’t blame karochi, the aroma of
mundivagant wrote this review Friday, December 28 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
freshly baked bread, talcum powder,
nor mandatory R&R for one man’s split
pee affinity for lily gouged flesh”
“Creepy cool!”
tmmercury wrote this review Tuesday, October 30 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“At its core, _Piercing_ is an exploration of child abuse. Kawashima, our "hero," endured a childhood of extreme abuse. When Kawashima's wife, Yoko, gives birth to their daughter Little Rie, Kawashima feels a painful physical and mental compulsion to stand over her at night with an icepick to "prove" that he will NOT stab her. To "cure" himself of these compulsions, he feels that he needs to, instead, stab someone else...sex-worker Chiaki who has endured her own share of hardships. As the novel reaches its climax, Kawashima and Chiaki's inner demons surface. It's a violent, terse, quick read.”
ordovician wrote this review Thursday, September 6 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Twisted, really. This is not a book for everyone--no one with children. It does get better, though. Kind of. Tokyo nihilism has its own particular style, and not everyone will enjoy it.The main character sets out to murder someone, not the happy-fuzzy end of the human spectrum.”
foofudge wrote this review Sunday, July 29 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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