In the Miso Soup is the eleventh novel by Ryu Murakami. It tells the story of Kenji, a tour guide specializing in the sleazy nightlife of Tokyo, who has been hired by Frank, an American tourist interested in finding sex during his stay. Their meeting occurs just as a rash of violent murders erupts in Tokyo. As Kenji takes Frank around to the sex clubs and hostess bars around the Kabukicho district of Tokyo, his client's strange and dangerously unnerving behavior sparks the suspicion that Frank may be the serial killer he's been hearing about on the news.
Murakami's Style – Cruel Social Commentary
Ryu Murakami does not shy away from anything. His novels have gained notoriety for their fearless and often disturbing style, typically including grotesque scenes of violence and uncomfortable characters and situations. Murakami is not simply trying to gross out the reader, but sculpting an unforgiving social critique.
As in the case of In the Miso Soup, the murder victims are described as people who are too caught up in trends and obtaining objects, people with vague, passionless motives, and people who have resigned themselves to a listless and mundane life. Though initially disgusted by their deaths, Kenji fails to sympathize with these people. He entertains the thought that they aren't really living, more like stale automatons floating through complacent lives.
The disturbing subject matter is meant to confront society at large, showing it for what it is or at least what it can become. Murakami's goal is self-reflection, an honest look at one's self and society in order to see and understand the faults.
The Ethics of Violence
What In the Miso Soup does beautifully is blurring the distinction between "good" and evil". Kenji's rationality comes to the conclusion that if people aren't really living then their lives don't really matter and therefore their murder is warranted.
Even further, despite being the object to be feared in the novel, Frank is given the chance to defend himself. According to his philosophy, physically carrying out violence or simulating it through the media, such as watching gory slasher films, is an imperfect therapy for exorcising inner demons and relieving anxiety. Violence, as seen in the novel, becomes a way of disrupting an equally troubling existence of repetitiveness and mental anguish.
Further Reading by Ryu Murakami
Published by Kodansha International LTD:
Almost Transparent Blue
Coin Locker Babies
Sixty-Nine
Piercing
Published by Penguin Group USA:
Piercing
In the Miso Soup was first published in Japanese in 1997. It was translated by Ralph McCarthy and released in English in 2006 by Penguin Group USA.
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