A review by paulataua
The Investigation by Jung-Myung Lee

3.0

On the surface, ‘The Investigation’ is a novel about a young guard unravelling the mystery of the murder of another guard in Fukuoka prison. That ‘investigation’ part, however, seems contrived and a little obvious, and is probably best seen as the opportunity to undertake the more important ‘investigation’ of Koreans in Japan during wartime, and the importance of language and literature on identity. Looking back on the novel things started to become clearer. I started to understand why Watanabe was young and inexperienced when he begins the investigation, why I found certain parts disjointed with clumsy language next to beautiful flowing poetic text, and why the guards started using the poet’s Korean name instead of his Japanese one as the story developed. So many things discovered in retrospect, but all discovered too late. Sometimes books are a little too clever for me. I really didn’t enjoy it and would have definitely given up half way through save for the great reviews and talk of an excellent ending.