Japanese Literature discussion

This October, our Book Club selection is Bullet Train by Kōtarō Isaka ((伊坂 幸太郎, Isaka Kōtarō, born 25 May 1971), translated by Sam Malissa. Originally titled Maria bitoru, it was a 2010 bestseller in Japan.



A March 2021 interview with Kotaro:
https://crimefictionlover.com/2021/03...

The movie version, directed by David Leitch and starring Sandra Bullock, Joey King, Andrew Koji, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hiroyuki Sanada and Benito A. Martínez Ocasio, is set for release April 8, 2022

Who plans to join? If you've finished it, what were your thoughts?

First thoughts... I shudder at the Hollywood movie treatment. It will be awful. Please avoid it and just read the book. Please. ☺️

Alan wrote: "First thoughts... I shudder at the Hollywood movie treatment. It will be awful. Please avoid it and just read the book. Please. ☺️"

Once they make all but one of the characters generically American, yet explain how there’s a bullet train even though we eschew mass transit investments, and strip it of any culture, what could go wrong?

No one here will wait until next April to enjoy it, I trust.

I actually had this book in my hand last week while I was shopping at Barnes and Noble. Figured I’d come home first and check members reviews before jumping in and buying the book. To my surprise there are many bad reviews on Goodreads for this book. I think I’ll wait and see what members here think. 😊

I'm about halfway through now and enjoying it. It's not going to win a literary prize but it's a pretty engaging read.

I'm a bit surprised that it's going to be adapted... Lots of it is very Japanese: The train; The whole character of 'The Prince'; the various 'Thomas the Tank Engine' character goods.

Hiroyuki Sanada is one of my favorite Japanese actors, so I'll probably watch the film.

Hello everyone!

I don't normally read modern thrillers, unless you count things like Patrick Süskind's Perfume, so this one was quite unusual territory for me. To be honest I almost stopped reading near the beginning because the violence was too much, but I'm glad that I didn't.

I enjoyed the following review/analysis:

https://animewondering.wordpress.com/...

I loved the book's dark humour and pacy, well-woven plot. Oftentimes I wondered how it was possible for things to go unnoticed on even a semi-deserted train, but I think suspension of disbelief is not just necessary but well deserved here: after all, the story-world has its own internal logic and within the novel, everything coheres extremely well. I actually felt the dopamine rushing in my brain more than once out of the sheer pleasure of seeing seemingly minor details masterfully brought to bear on the story. Both Chekhov and his gun would have been proud.

I'm currently reading Kafka on the Shore, and by comparison, Bullet Train was actually easier for me to deal with in terms of violence, because I was able to distance myself from it more easily. In Kafka the violence is vivid and shocking and minutely described (even if you skim it!), whereas with Bullet Train, the overall dark comedy feel made it - "lighter", I guess. Although, at the same time, of course, Isaka makes us think about the problem of human evil... and some things were harder to go through than others.

On another note, @Jordan, I never realised Thomas the Tank Engine was popular in Japan! I found Lemon's obsession very endearing, and excellently done.

Very curious about how Hollywood will go about adapting this book, though I'm not sure if that curiosity will be enough to make me see the film.

One last quick thought: unlike the reviewer at Animewondering, I didn't find Tangerine and Lemon the most empathetic characters (though I liked them) -- for me, the most empathetic was hands down Nanao, and I can't help suspecting that Isaka feels the same way about him.