00:00If you're tired of the cozy, more fairytale-like vibes of Japan, this psychological thriller will take you to a dark Tokyo,
00:06dark and disturbing.
00:08Tokyo Soup shows us a nocturnal reality made of excess, violence and alienation.
00:13It is not only a journey into the darkest part of Tokyo, but also into the darkest recesses of the human mind.
00:18The story follows Frank, an American who decides to spend New Year's Eve in Tokyo.
00:22And Kenji, a young guide who makes his living by taking tourists to the red-light district.
00:28From the very beginning their relationship is a bit ambiguous and here the psychological part begins because we enter into the mind of
00:34Kenji and we too are beginning to have doubts about this man's nature.
00:38The description of the settings works very well because Murakami manages to make Tokyo tangible.
00:43It really feels like walking with the characters among these neon lights, these slightly shady alleys and decadent places.
00:50of the city.
00:51For the first part of the book the narration proceeds quite normally creating tension and uneasiness without anything really happening.
00:59of explicitly shocking.
01:01Then we get to the second part where the madness happens.
01:05The story gradually turns into a nightmare in which violence explodes and reality itself seems to take shape.
01:12Among the main themes there is certainly that of urban alienation and the darker side of human desire, the
01:18loses its identity and also the contrast between appearance and reality.
01:23Murakami then also addresses the theme of the Western gaze on Japan by showing how tourism can transform into extreme consumption.
01:32and distorted local culture.
01:33It's definitely a disturbing and shocking read, but it's also very easy to read, apart from a few obviously unsettling scenes.
01:41a little disturbing.
01:42I saw that there are also other very famous books of his that have gone viral here on booktok but honestly
01:47I don't know if I'll read anything else.
01:49If you have any opinions about Tokyo Soup or other books you've read, please let me know in the comments.
Commenti