Cheap Out (Book) (Natsuo Kirino, Stephen Snyder) Price

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Customer Reviews of Out

Lunchboxes and Dismemberment
"Out" by Natsuo Kirino is certainly not my usual choice in reading material, though one I was thoroughly glad to have decided upon reading. I thoroughly enjoyed every last page of it, from beginning to end. <
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>Masako, Kuniko, Yoshie and Yayoi are a group of women who work nights at a boxed lunch factory in Tokyo. After Yayoi strangles her husband, the others attempt to cover up the crime. Along with a host of other characters who get pulled into the plot, these women find themselves in some rather unusual situations. <
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>The characterisations of each is in-depth and gritty. The women each have a host of problems with their own lives, let alone getting hooked up in covering for Yayoi. From issues with family life, money and their own children, these women are real, earthy and very flawed heroines. However, they are also very real, and very human people with their own idiosyncracies. <
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>The world about the women often treats women as mere objects, and this comes out in people like loan shark Jumonji, with a taste for high school girls, and the pimp Satake, whose only real love was someone he knifed to death. Within this world of oppressive objectification, the four women from the factory stand in stark contrast to this overall trend. <
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>"Out" is a crime novel, but it is also so much more. Despite the problems some have mentioned about it, I did not find them such an issue. For a good story about a murder and its cover up, you will not find much better. It is a great book, and one that I will remember for a long time to come.

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An eye-opener
This is my first excursion into Japanese fiction after consuming a good deal of contemporary nonfiction, mostly first-hand accounts on everyday life in the country. I must say that this was an eye-opener. It provides a glimpse into a gritty aspect of life in Japan that, although fictional, is obviously based on careful research, and this is melded with a frighteningly deep insight into universal human nature. It's enough to give one second thoughts about a visit to the country. In the end, I'm still planning to go, but I think I'll lay off the bentos. A real page-turner.

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Could not put this one down.....
I hate the types of reviews that go into so much details about the charactors, plots etc so I'll keep this one short. <
>After months of waiting to get a copy of this book - I live over seas and very far from a good bookstore - I wasnt disappointed. The book is surprising thick but you dont realise just how much you have read and digested because it is so well written. It is so brillantly written you find yourself lost in the plots and environments. With heavy emphasis on the charactors and not so much detail about the japanese culture ( you could buy a travel book for that) this plot could be based in any country and culture. <
>For a first time reader of this author I would highly recommend it for a good thrill of a read!