Tag Archives: Noir

BOOK REVIEW: The Rope Artist by Fuminori Nakamura

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The Rope ArtistThe Rope Artist by Fuminori Nakamura
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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Release Date: May 2, 2023

This is a hard-boiled detective novel centered around the mysterious death of a kinbaku artist, kinbaku is a Japanese art of tying up a person with rope, the practice sprung from the need to bind prisoners of war and criminals, but it came to be associated with the BDSM (Bondage, Domination / Submission, & Sado-Masochism) activities of kinky sex. The death of the rope artist, Kazunari Yoshikawa, is but the first of a few fatalities that are somehow connected, though the reader only learns how by following the story through to the end. There are several novel elements of the story that grab the reader’s attention, including: sex worker doppelgangers and a man with a missing finger and no known name.

I was engrossed by this novel. It captured my attention from the beginning. The psychology on display in the story is at once fascinating and bizarre. The story is told via three perspectives. The first is a junior detective, Togashi, who is a bit libido-driven and prone to ill-considered decisions. As a main character, one anticipates some of Togashi’s decisions because one knows what drives him, he’s a sucker for a pretty woman, but what the reader doesn’t know is when and how it will blow up in his face. The other main perspective is that of another detective, Hayama, who is the antithesis of Togashi. Hayama is immune to libidinous temptations and is solid as a rock where Togashi is nervous and neurotic. (The third perspective is Yoshikawa’s epistolary confession [no one has completely clean hands in this book.])

If you like crime fiction that’s a bit edgy, you may want to look into this book. That said, a warning for sensitive readers, it is sexually explicit and, while it’s not so sex-centered as to be primarily classified erotica, sex of various types occurs throughout the book.


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BOOK REVIEW: 100% by Paul Pope

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100%100% by Paul Pope
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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Despite the gritty, futuristic-noir setting of this graphic novel, it’s essentially the intertwining of three love stories. The story opens on the corpse of a dancer found in an alleyway. I thought this was going to be part of the story’s inciting incident or foreshadow it, but — in reality — it just served to establish that we’re on the wrong side of the tracks. The same might be said of a scene involving the purchasing of a gun. [I’ll let the reader figure out whether it was a “Chekov’s gun.” i.e. Chekov famously said, “If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off.”] The fact that the story set in and around a strip club is apparently insufficient to convey how seedy this neighborhood is.

The love stories are between a dancer and a dishwasher, the club manager and a fighter, and the manager’s best friend and a sound artist. These love stories are nicely woven together, even if they are clichéd. The relationship with the prize fighter is probably the stalest. However, fear of commitment and standing up for one’s art are the well-worn heart of the other two stories. As I think about it, it’s not that those clichéd themes form the heart of the story (one will see the same themes replayed out in great works, past, present, and future,) but instead I think it’s the way we are pummeled over the head with them. It’s much like aforementioned set up of the seediness of the setting. By being so blatant, one can’t help but feel it’s a bit hackneyed.

That said, it’s a fine story, that might have benefited from a little bit of subtlety.

The artwork was well-done as far as I’m able to tell. I have no particular expertise in art, so my only criteria is whether I could follow what was happening, and I could.

The “100%” that is presumably meant to apply to the lengths the characters go to for what / who they love, unfortunately is exceeded in telling the story in a way that draws attention to itself too much for its own good. That said, if you’re looking for sweet stories of love in a seedy setting, this book has got you covered.

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