Grotesque (KINDLE:MOBI FORMAT)by Natsou Kirino

Natsuo Kirino may be the most socially astute of current Japanese writers for her critiques of class, economic and social heirarchies, the pressures of high expectation and competiton children are placed into both by parents and the school system, and the abusive fetishization of youth, particularly of young women. In Grotesque Natsuo Kirino's story of two murdered prostitutes from middle class families who both attended an elite high school (one going on to university and a career in economics) is narrated by the unnamed sister of one but also told through diaries of the two prostitutes and the strange written confession of the murderer. The novel is full of lies and deception as we untangle the events and the lives of the narrator, the killer, the murdered sister and the murdered friend. The petty actions, jealousy and spite of the narrating sister and the images of overworked men seeking the attention they have no time to receive or give to a family as well as a confirmation of their virility from any source that happens to be available leaves the question of what and who is "grotesque" open. While the novel is disturbing and none of the characters ultimately sympathetic or redeeming, Grotesque turns inward upon itself to ask not how any of them become what they are, but in which ways what they become mirrors the grotesqueries of the society that created them.