Grotesque

Grotesque is a Japanese novel written by Natsuo Kirino. It is a fascinating story told by an unnamed female narrator whose sister and old friend have been murdered. The woman lives under the shadow of her younger sister Yuriko from the very beginning. Yuriko is an extremely beautiful girl who is always in the center of attention. The narrator hates her. She feels rejected, not accepted and tired of the constant comparisons. Later, Yuriko and narrators school friend  - Kazue Sato become prostitues and are murdered probably by the same man.

The book is divided into several parts - story told by the narrator, Yuriko's diary, Kazue Sato's diary and a report written by the accused of murder - Zhang who admits killing Yuriko but he denies the other crime. In the other parts, not written by the narror, we can see the different points of view on the same situation. The narrator who introduced us to the story and presented her opinion turns out to be tentative. Everyone has their own truth. The author don't give us the answers in this story. The readers must find them by themselves.

Grotesque seems to be a crime novel but in reality it's a very good and detailed study of characters. We can also find many typical elements for the Japanese culture.