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A review by doritobabe
A Quiet Place by Seicho Matsumoto
2.0
I discovered this through my local library when searching for the movie of the same name. I decided to read it because I had heard that reading Matsumoto's works provides good insight into the intricate cultural workings of early 20th century Japan.
A Quiet Place is the story of a the mysterious death of a 'successful', straight-as-an-arrow, yet ambitious government worker. Asai feels that his wife's death is very suspicious as she died of a heart attack in a strange part of town, while he was away on business. Nothing fishy but the obvious, right? Taking matters into his own hands, Asai pursues the truth behind his wife's death and ends up creating a complicated web of deceit that he needs to maintain.
Outside of the cultural information, there isn't much to this story. The reader is able to easily infer the main actions of Mrs. Asai, and when we are unable to infer the rest of the story, Matsumoto has the protagonist TELL it to us in such a way that made me say, "okay, but are you sure? How did you come up with that without ~evidence~?" I like how there is a moralistic ending to the book, however-- this can be seen as a redeeming quality (and the second star). In terms of being thrilling: this book isn't. In terms of this book allowing the reader to figure out the mystery: you don't. You're told it.
Wouldn't recommend unless you would like to learn about Japanese "form" and high level information about the bureaucratic structure.
A Quiet Place is the story of a the mysterious death of a 'successful', straight-as-an-arrow, yet ambitious government worker. Asai feels that his wife's death is very suspicious as she died of a heart attack in a strange part of town, while he was away on business. Nothing fishy but the obvious, right? Taking matters into his own hands, Asai pursues the truth behind his wife's death and ends up creating a complicated web of deceit that he needs to maintain.
Outside of the cultural information, there isn't much to this story. The reader is able to easily infer the main actions of Mrs. Asai, and when we are unable to infer the rest of the story, Matsumoto has the protagonist TELL it to us in such a way that made me say, "okay, but are you sure? How did you come up with that without ~evidence~?" I like how there is a moralistic ending to the book, however-- this can be seen as a redeeming quality (and the second star). In terms of being thrilling: this book isn't. In terms of this book allowing the reader to figure out the mystery: you don't. You're told it.
Wouldn't recommend unless you would like to learn about Japanese "form" and high level information about the bureaucratic structure.