Book Review: Piercing by Ryu Murakami

Title: Piercing
Author: Ryu Murakami
Translator: Ralph McCarthy
Published: New York: Penguin, 2007 (1994)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 192
Total Page Count: 165,168
Text Number: 483
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Kawashima Masayuki believes he's put his troubled past behind him--until he becomes obsessed with stabbing his infant daughter with an ice pick, an obsession he can only elevate by murdering someone else instead. Piercing combines a dry, dark tone with a lack of restraint, and the combination works. It's short enough to suit the thematic transparency (but, unfortunately, also so short that the redundant aspects of the dual narratives are frustrating), and the wry gallows humor makes for an unromanticized but indulgent study of violence: creative, intentionally shocking, and put to good use in serving the themes. This is meant to be psychological horror rather than an accurate representation of child abuse, and lacks true complexity. But if the intent appeals, Piercing will satisfy. I recommend it, and plan to read more Murakami.


Media mentioned in Piercing by Ryu Murakami
(more or less exhaustive, in approximate order of appearance)

Nicolas de Staël (artist)
Basic Instinct (film)
Peter Pan syndrome
Mozart
Wild at Heart (film)
Corpses (photograph collection)
Music of Afternoon Classics Volume III (specific songs: Chopin's Nocturnes, Schumann's Scenes from Childhood, Schubert's Moments Musicales)