G1193 Book Review of The Aosawa Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda
Author: Riku Onda (Trans by Alison Wats)
ISBN: 978-1-912242-24-5
Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press, Kadokawa Corp in Japan
Type of book: Japan, 1970s-2000s, murder, family, blindness, narrative, mimicking, truth, motivation, puzzle, poison, Kanto region, weather, monologues, timeline, friendship, charisma
Year it was published: 2005, 2020
Summary:
The novel starts in the 1970s when 17 people die of cyanide poisoning at a party given by the owners of a prominent clinic in a town on the coast of the Sea of Japan. The only surviving links to what might have happened are a cryptic verse that could be the killer's, and the physician's bewitching blind daughter, Hisako, the only person spared injury. The youth who emerges as the prime suspect commits suicide that October, effectively sealing his guilt while consigning his motives to mystery.
The police are convinced Hisako had a role in the crime, as are many in the town, including the author of a bestselling book about the murders written a decade after the incident, who was herself a childhood friend of Hisako’ and witness to the discovery of the killings. The truth is revealed through a skillful juggling of testimony by different voices: family members, witnesses and neighbors, police investigators and of course the mesmerizing Hisako herself.
Main characters definitely include Hisako Aosawa, a mysterious blind daughter, as well as an only family survivor of the terrible murder. Hisako is best described as a cypher, and an extremely troubled soul. She is also charismatic and holds a strange sway over different characters. She also seems to be larger than life. Makiko Saiga is an author of a book that depicts the Aosawa Murders and is as elusive and controversial as Hisako. Makiko also has plenty of things she is not straight out confessing. There are plenty of other characters who are giving the reader a glimpse of two of those main, but I will admit that both Hisako and Makiko stole the show so to speak.
Theme:
Trying to figure out why is just as difficult as figuring out who.
Plot:
Pretty much the entire tale is from first person narrative, and yes, it switches characters' points of view for each chapter, and no, the characters dont get revisited, although others do mention them. The tale is linear, but often it's not clear how much time passed between the narratives that are presented. The novel also features monologue for all of its chapters, broken into small parts, which will make it easier for people to read, especially for those who need to finish whole chapters. However, putting the whole story together, or attempting to see how it will fit is another matter. When I was reading it, I was reminded a lot of a Japanese drama I watched years ago: Life, about bullying and about one particular girl, and it's of this girl that Hisako strongly reminded me of. Definitely needs to be a re-read.
Author Information:
(From the book)
Riku Onda, born in 1964, is the professional name of Nanae Kumagai. She has been writing fiction since 1991 and has published prolifically since. She has won the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers, the Japan Booksellers' Award, the Yamamoto Shugoro Prize and the Naoki Prize. Her work has been adapted for film and television. The Aosawa Murders won the prestigious Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Best Novel. It is Riku Onda's first crime novel and her first work translated into English.
Opinion:
I am not a stranger to reading mysteries or crime novels, having read a lot in the last few years; therefore I can honestly state that The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda is unlike anything i have read before. In the mystery novels I have read, first is it asks you to be a specific investigator, and second, throughout the book, a lot of clues are sprinkled to help one figure out why, how and who. What is different with Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda, however, is that while it asks you to be an investigator, it's seriously up to you to see what guilt, if any, Hisako has, and why she did it, making this tale a true jigsaw puzzle of words. ( it also doesn't help that pretty much all the characters have two sides, if not more.) It's also unknown as to whom has put the evidence together because 98 percent of the time, each chapter is like a characters deposition, with no interruption of another's voice. (Akin to picking up a suspects folder, reading through testimony and trying to see how it all fits, if it does fit.) The tale is definitely literary and one needs several rereads to fully grasp it.
This was given to me for a review
5 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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