Lady Joker, Volume 1

By: Kaoru Takamura, Marie Iida - translator, Allison Markin Powell - translator

Narrated by: Brian Nishii

Length: 20 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

One of Japan’s great modern masters, Kaoru Takamura, makes her English-language debut with this two-volume publication of her magnum opus.

Tokyo, 1995. Five men meet at the racetrack every Sunday to bet on horses. They have little in common except a deep disaffection with their lives, but together they represent the social struggles and griefs of post-War Japan: a poorly socialized genius stuck working as a welder; a demoted detective with a chip on his shoulder; a Zainichi Korean banker sick of being ostracized for his race; a struggling single dad of a teenage girl with Down syndrome. The fifth man bringing them all together is an elderly drugstore owner grieving his grandson, who has died suspiciously after the revelation of a family connection with the segregated buraku community, historically subjected to severe discrimination.

Intent on revenge against a society that values corporate behemoths more than human life, the five conspirators decide to carry out a heist: kidnap the CEO of Japan’s largest beer conglomerate and extract blood money from the company’s corrupt financiers.

Inspired by the unsolved true-crime kidnapping case perpetrated by “the Monster with 21 Faces”, Lady Joker has become a cultural touchstone since its 1997 publication, acknowledged as the magnum opus by one of Japan’s literary masters, twice adapted for film and TV and often taught in high school and college classrooms.

©1997, 2021 Kaoru Takamura (P)2021 Recorded Books

Enjoyable and interesting

Long but easy to enjoy. The writing and I suspect the translation are both excellent. The plot is not at all simple and is developed slowly. Part one of course is only half the story but I moved immediately onto part two. Recommended.

So many stories, so much time

Lady Joker Volume One continues to confuse and entertain, even on third reading done to prepare for Volume Two. The problem is that on the first listen it's impossible to know which facts will become important later. Many are just rabbit holes. I think that when he mentions something that has even a minor role in the plot, he feels compelled to do a deep dive and really explain it.

So many ways to read this book. One is just to read about Japanese cultural changes and existential angst. One is to learn many many things about Japanese corporations, Japanese police, Japanese banking, and Japanese journalism. Another is to try to follow the complicated plot, trying to remember each character. I like the second way, with some of the other two mixed in. It helps that each of the first few chapters describe one character's relationship with his profession.

A slow burn that can satisfy

If you're considering this book, you need to go in aware that this is truly a Part 1 in the purest sense. There's no resolution or real ending. You'll need to get Part 2 (recently released) in order to have the actual complete novel.

This is an odd duck. It's a crime novel but really it feels more like a look inside boardroom politics at a Japanese company in the final decades of the 20th century. The initial crime is there but a great deal of this novel deals with the inner machinations of scandals and coverups and how they're dealt with internally and externally in Japanese society.

While I enjoyed Part 2 more than Part 1, this is still an intriguing listen. That said, don't be expecting much progress or resolution in sight. I found it relaxing and interesting delving into how a situation like the one laid out in the book would be dealt with. While picking up on the initial extensive list of characters took some focus, once you're introduced and get a feel for the flow, I was able to relax and listen without having to focus on every word as can sometimes happen in very detailed books of this nature.

Don't be in a rush, this is a slow burn but one that I ultimately enjoyed.