Outlet - Softcover

Taguchi, Randy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1932234047 ISBN 13: 9781932234046

Publisher: Vertical, 2003

Synopsis

When finance writer Yuki's enigmatic and estranged older brother is found decomposing in his apartment, her only clues to his bizarre demise are her memories of him. As Yuki descends deeper and deeper into her own psyche, she catches glimpses of her true nature.

A brisk, bristling story of survivor's guilt, treacherous sex, and unexpected redemption, Outlet opens the door to a spiritual dimension that is both new and age-old. The climax is mind-blowing.

About this title

About the Author

Randy Taguchi renown as "The Queen of the Internet" in her native Japan where her running e-commentary on everyday life has been phenomenally popular. Outlet, her first novel, was a bestseller there and is her first work to appear in English.

Reviews

A young Japanese finance writer tries to uncover the truth behind her older brother's mysterious death in Taguchi's bizarre, provocative and sometimes grisly debut novel, which was a bestseller in Japan. After a steamy one-night stand with her old friend Kimura, Yuki Asakura learns that her brother Taka's badly decomposed body has been found in his apartment; it seems he has starved himself to death. After Yuki helps her shaken family-brutal alcoholic father and distraught mother-make it through the funeral, she turns to her college psychology professor and former lover, Atsuo Kunisada, whom she hopes will help her cope with her loss. Yuki has also begun smelling the stench of death on people who appear healthy, including Kimura, and has been troubled by surreal dreams about her brother. When she runs into an old classmate, Ritsuko Honda, who's now studying shamanism, Ritsuko steers Yuki to a shaman named Yamagishi, who further interprets the dreams as Yuki closes in on the heart of the mystery. She struggles to maintain her sanity as she's torn between dreams and reality: "I'm way past neurotic and into schizophrenic," she says. But the truth is more complicated: it becomes clear that what she'd smelled on Kimura was cancer, for which he is successfully treated, and that her sexual encounters may have a healing power. Taguchi's blocky but absorbing prose links the mystical to the technological, and the novel's dark twists and turns should keep readers hooked until the surprising climax.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Vertical
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1932234047
• ISBN 13: 9781932234046
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 269