Outlet

Like some of the best Japanese movies, Randy Taguchi’s Outlet dances around several different literary genres, without committing itself to any one. It starts out like a mystery novel, as our protagonist, Yuki Asakura, learns that her estranged brother was found dead and rotting in his apartment. Was it murder, suicide, or natural causes? Or was it something else? As the only anchor in her unstable family, Yuki has to deal with taking care of the clean up and making arrangements for her brother’s funeral. The stress of the situation coupled with some bizarre statements made by the funeral director and corpse clean-up service man (in a scene that reads like something out of a Chuck Palahniuk novel), cause Yuki to have a break with reality. She starts hallucinating scenes with her brother, and it is here our detective mystery starts to flow into spiritual fantasy and psychological horror.

Yuki is forced to start seeing her old psychology professor for counseling, despite the fact their relationship ten years prior wasn’t strictly student/teacher. The two return to their old habits almost immediately, and Yuki begins to wonder if there isn’t more meaning to her sexual appetite and power over men. And why does she suddenly start to smell "death” on people she meets? Could her brother’s death and her animal attraction somehow be related? Do hallucinations always seem this real?

Outlet is unlike anything out there today. Though it is set in Japan, the ideas and themes are very universal. Outlet was translated by Glynne Walley, and it is one of the best translations of a Japanese novel this reviewer has read. Sometimes in translated fiction the dialogue can sound awkward if the translator tries to do too direct a translation. That issue never comes up in what ends up as a very smooth and fluid read. Even with some of the ethereal and metaphysical themes, the language is clear and the images easy to create in the reader’s mind.

Though, not every image is one that one might want to imagine again. In places Outlet can be stimulating and revolting at the same time. The nature of the journey Yuki finds herself on requires her to mentally hit rock bottom before she can complete it. This leads to a series of dream-like sequences, where both the reader and Yuki are not sure if the experiences are real, hallucinations or dreams. Sometimes these experiences are pleasant, but often there are horrific elements involved. It isn’t hard to see why Randy Taguchi’s first novel was a best seller in her native Japan (Randy is a nickname). It also no mystery why PDI favorite Ryu Murakami, author of Coin Locker Babies, called Outlet, “ the most stunning novel I’ve read in the last decade.” The story is unique, the approaches to sexuality and spirituality are new, and the writing is spellbinding.