Kazushige Abe

This book tells the story of a young man working in Tokyo but originally from the countryside, whose strange past affiliations come back to haunt him and... Put him into some major troubles, in the middle of a yakuza war (Japanese mafia). The protagonist tries to find the key to a mystery concerning his past, that has to do with his present predication, but realizes in doing so that he might not be completely sane. What of his life is true, and what of it is only hallucinated?

Really, I don't know if the French translation is what made this book difficult to follow... But reading it I had the impression a 15 year old could have written with more insight and make more sense. A big part of the book is just about the central character picking up fights, avoiding picking up fights, or thinking about his next fight. But the fight scenes have nothing exciting and are only very simply detailed. It looks like the author was trying to be shocking by doing a book about «secret societies», yakuza, violence, rape and bizarre mental glitches, but really, the book makes no sense and has only meagre interest....… (mere)