THE CAGE by KENZO KITAKATA
Vertical paperback, 230pp, $14.95

The author is billed as ‚Äòthe undisputed don of hardboiled and mystery writing in Japan‚Äô, which is fair enough, but there‚Äôs nothing distinctively Japanese about this book. Change some of the names, substitute mafia for yakuza, or use the more generic gang, and it could just as easily be set in New York or LA. Plotwise it in part reprises Cronenberg‚Äôs A History of Violence, or any Bellow/Updike novel about a man undergoing a mid-life crisis, with the proviso that in this case the man is a gangster. (more…)

Tags: black • book • Cage • Japan • Kitakata • Peter Tennant • reviews • static • Tennant