Outlet

Rating:
Summary: New view on what you thought was a familiar world
Review: Many years ago, a friend and I came up with a word game in which we replaced natural references with manmade ones. Instead of saying, "She had eyes the color of robins' eggs," we'd say, "Her eyes were IBM blue." "The late afternoon sky was airbrushed with the red of Chinese lacquer." Over time, history, that is, our reference points do change. From a different perspective, we may wonder if it's the same world as that we have been looking at.

From the start of Randy Taguchi's "Outlet," there is a sense that something is off-kilter, and that feeling keeps you on edge throughout the book. The events the main character encounters--the odd death of her brother (he seemed to have let himself die although he had no illness), a search for meaning in mourning, a dysfunctional family, and sexual relations bare of relations, are common themes in life and novels, but there is always the feeling that there is more to what is being described, that there is an approach to viewing the same events we can only feel a little but can't yet turn the corner to see fully.

These are the same nagging sensations the main character experiences. And they lead her to question her own sanity. Why can she now smell the scent of death? Her dead brother is appearing to her, and seeming to appeal to her to discover the cause of his death. As a 21st century young woman who writes for an online financial publication, she is not looking for answers in religion and tradition, not even the new tradition of psychiatry. She sleeps with men without needing to fall for them. She would rather talk stocks and bonds than emotions. But she can't figure out what's going on and heads toward a nervous breakdown. So what of it?

Is breaking down the end?

The fears, toughness, dissolution of the main character are conveyed extremely well in the contemporary conversational tone of the narrative, translated beautifully from Japanese and without any accent. (Great job, Vertical!) It's an up-to-date sound, without the plummy "English" notes and wordiness still associated with "Literature." In this case, given the main character's profession, the first-person narrative is true to her character and the style of good magazine and business writing in the 21st century.

While sounding spontaneous and almost casual, the narrative is smartly structured, as you will see when you get to the surprise ending, which although a surprise is not a cheat, because you sensed from the start that you were onto something fresh, with new reference points to view what you thought was a familiar world.

Rating:
Summary: plugs and outlets
Review: what better metaphor for sex than plugs and outlets? cyber-age interaction too. No wonder she's compared to Bjork (re: All is Full of Love video). Except Randy Taguchi doesn't just sleep around. She sucks negative energy out of the ailing. Very Taoist. This might sound gross, but it actually succeeds in making you all warm inside. If nothing else, it will make you think. Also, it deals with a huge social endemic of Japan called "withdrawal" or "shut in", that kills people through psychological damage.