Book of the Month: Hooked

I was in W H Smiths at Paddington Station back in March and the fish on the cover of this book caught my eye. The book was half price that week so I thought I would give it a go.

Asako Yuzuki's novel, Butter, was a breakthrough hit in its English translation last year. This is the English language follow up, although it was published in Japan two years before Butter. 

The book's Japanese title is The Nile Perch Women's Club, as the titular fish plays a pivotal role as a metaphor for predatory activity that destroys ecosystems. The Nile perch is also the focus for the main character, Eriko, who works in a major fish-importing company that is trying to introduce Nile perch into the fussy Japanese market. 'Hooked' is less relevant as a title and doesn't really fit. 

Beyond the fish metaphor, the book is really about loneliness and the struggle some people have to make friends. Eriko becomes obsessed with a blogger and engineers a friendship with her, which quickly becomes a stalking style relationship. 

Except, told from Eriko's point of view, it's not stalking, it's all a misunderstanding, that could easily be explained if only she could get her new, but distancing, friend to talk to her. The sympathetic presentation of the situation from the point of view of the obsessed stalker keeps the story fresh and helps the author avoid clichés.

The Nile perch was accidentally introduced into a new ecosystem where it was the apex predator and a hungry one at that. As it wiped out the other species of fish it encountered, it gradually destroyed the ecosystem it was thriving in. Similarly, Eriko's behaviour destroys the new ecosystem she finds herself in, and creates problems in her career and family, areas she had been thriving in. 

My only negative comment on the book is the directness of the direct speech. Conversations are more like two characters monologuing at each other, in some detail. That may reflect Japanese culture, or it may be down to the translation. Early on, there was a jarring choice of word that may have been an accurate translation of the Japanese, but just felt wrong. (Annoyingly, I can't remember the word that jarred with me!) Overall, it's a small quibble though.

Hooked is my first foray into Japanese contemporary novels. I liked it and will probably try to read Butter at some point too.