#kaoru takamura

[poetlcs]

books read in 2024 - no. 10

lady joker by kaoru takamura (trnsl.  marie lida &  allison markin powell )

[world-literatures]

just read: Lady Joker by Kaoru Takamura

This is a complex crime fiction novel loosely based upon the Monster with 21 Faces case. It's also quite lengthy, to me possibly slightly overlong, but still very well plotted and paced.

I'd describe this book as challenging, but rewarding. It's detailed and complex, with a large cast of characters which weave in and out of the narrative. An expansive look at modern Japan, capitalism, greed and crime this novel is thematically rich and immersive.

Some parts were more entertaining then others and yet, I never felt my interest waning. I did find some of the cultural touchpoints and references eluded me - a Japanese person I think would feel more connected to this. And yet I was happy to come along for the ride anyway.

One highlight is the translation - it's excellently done. Meticulous prose that never feels clunky or confusing.

genres: crime

translator:  Marie Iida and Allison Markin Powell

rating: no rating

themes: capitalism and greed, corporate corruption, crime and justice, post-war Japan

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.

[very-grownup]

Book 26/27, 2024

It's good to get out of your comfort zone with fiction. That's one of the reasons I try to read works in translation regularly and also why I try to avoid setting too much store by genre. This means sometimes I will just add an author or title to my list of books to buy and by the time I've gotten to it, I've long forgotten how it came to my attention in the first place.

Such is the case with Kaoru Takamura's not-quite-mystery novel, not-quite-literary-fiction 1997 work (a cursory glance at wikipedia suggests it came wright between Takamura's writing mystery novels and her moving on to literary fiction, which explains the odd place it exists, genre-wise) "Lady Joker". Inspired by the the kidnapping of the president of Glico in the 1980s and the unknown group's subsequent extortions and product tampering (read up on the Glico Morinaga case, it's interesting), "Lady Joker" is a sprawling novel spanning several years in the 1990s, but it starts in the 1940s with a dissatisfied and dismissed beer company employee writing a scathing letter alleging workplace discrimination and everything that comes after goes back to this one man's letter.

This is all invention on Takamura's part. The actual Glico Morinaga case has never been solved.

In the 1990s a recent graduate of a prestigious university has an unsuccessful job interview with a major beer company and dies in a car accident.

A pair of shady men visit the grieving father with a copy of the old letter and the suggestion that it, and a familial connection hidden by a web of adoptions, is the reason behind his son's rejection by the company and, ultimately, his death.

The grieving father takes half-hearted steps to threaten the beer company before he second guesses himself and pulls back, eventually dying by suicide.

His father-in-law finds out about the letter and the beer company's possible involvement in the deaths and it acts as the fuel for a criminal plot by him and his acquaintances who bet on horseraces, a plan for kidnapping and extortion without any real victims, but which will economically hurt the company which, like all companies, takes and takes from people and never benefits any but the top brass, eventually forming a group they refer to as Lady Joker.

The motivations and backstories and connections of the members of Lady Joker are the focus of the first part of the novel and then disappear from narrative view almost entirely until the end of the novel, as Takamura focuses on the kidnapped executive who is threatened not with death or violence, but with damage to the company's reputation and stock value by tampering with a newly launched beer, other executives, members of the press, and detectives investigating it.

It's a lot. "Lady Joker" is a dense book and as wide ranging as its subject matter is, it's probably inevitable that certain parts are more engaging than others. The stuff dealing with the members of Lady Joker was probably my favourite and, unfortunately, those sections only bookend the dense middle of the novel where there isn't a mystery and you're kind of on the side of the men of Lady Joker. The knots of corporate obligations and expectations the kidnapped president twists himself into, his justification of the decisions he makes and what he does and does not share, are interesting but do little to make you /not/ want Lady Joker to succeed in their scheme and get away clean. The parts about the newspaper and other media reporters had me really struggling to stay engaged. The fact that it became increasingly apparent that Lady Joker was NOT going to get caught made the police sections feel odd, almost treading narrative water. I was far more interested in the main detective's increasing disillusionment with the police and his persistent refusal in recognizing his ex-brother-in-law's romantic interest in him.

It's an interesting novel with lots of good bits, but knowing it was a transitional novel for Takamura helps me understand why some things worked so well and others didn't.

I think I may have also had a bit of difficulty because the translators of "Lady Joker" are not interested in giving you much in the way of extra-textual cultural information that you, the reader, might lack, not being a Japanese citizen in the late 1990s. It's not that I mind, I've read plenty of translated works without handholding, but I'm wondering if more context would have helped me in the areas I found more sloggy. Who can say.

I'm glad whatever happened that brought "Lady Joker" to my attention. It was interesting and different and well-worth the effort to push through the areas I found less than interesting. It's just cool to read something off your usual path sometimes.

[booksofdelight]

Lady Joker Book Guide and Review

Read the Lady Joker Book Guide and Review to see if this series is for you!

The Lady Joker volumes by Kaoru Takamura and translated by Allison Markin Powell and Marie Iida are epic mystery novels. They tell the tale of a kidnapping in Japan and what follows once they release the hostage. Find out the what we thought of the books in our Lady Joker book guide and review article! Lady Joker Books Lady Joker Volume One Lady Joker Volume Two Lady Joker Series Summary The…

[thedemises]

. . .  SARAH [BY ALEX G]! featuring kaoru takamura & kaname nishiruka!

contains! . . . lowercase writing, oc writing, about my two ocs (+ an additional oc), not shipping you weirdos..., uncharacteristically sad kaoru & empathetic kaname, no plot, hurt/comfort(?), only just two lines of dialogue from kaname, mentioned catherine collison. notes! . . .  thought about something sad while I was reading something that wasn't even sad and the tiktok audio going "she looks so angry... why does everyone always look at you that way?" with Sarah by Alex G (sped up) playing in the background (currently am listening to Sarah rn-)

“she looks so angry...”

a simple comment leaves kaname's mouth as he glances at the seemingly disappointed and frustrated look in his superior's—catherine's—face from the small crack between the door and the frame that leads to the main office , then the child look back at kaoru who sat on the stair's steps with a straight posture.

in spite of the bright smile she donned, that never erased the gloominess that ached in her heart even as she denies such thing.

she's undeserving of feeling any emotions with how unhuman she feels and expresses that she can be viewed as simply “apathetic” by others.

staring with an empathetic gaze, a basic question was asked by kaname— “why does everyone always look at you that way?...”

initially, kaoru doesn't say a thing as eyes kaname once but that demeanour shifts as the smile slowly but steadily falls off her face into a upside-down smile—eyelids drooping over her pink irises and eyebrows slightly furrowed, the corners of her reddish-tinited lips forms into a small line but slightly downturned enough that it looks like it's about to bend and crack into a frown.

tucking a small lock of chocolatey brown curls, kaoru softly sighs out through her nose into the silence between her and the young child. kaname quietly walks to her side and sit down beside her while still gazing at the middle-aged woman with a saddened expression, before deciding to lean his head against her body.

the two sat in silence, not daring to disturb the tranquil quietness in the air between them.

© thedemises 2024. all rights reserved. please do not repost, copy, or claim as your own. ━━  word count: 274.

[littleeyesofpallas]

Edo no Irokoi Tsuya[江戸の色恋艶咄]: Tales of a Flirtatious Edo Love Affair

[skylightbooks]

ARLO’S HOLIDAY CATALOG PICKS!

LADY JOKER, VOLUME 2 by Kaoru Takamura; translated by Allison Markin Powell and Marie Iida

If you picked up Lady Joker, Volume 1 last year then you won’t be disappointed by the epic conclusion in part two. One of the great crime novels of Japan (or anywhere), filled with CEOs, cops, reporters, detectives, truckers, metal workers, and, above all, Takamura’s panoptic and staggering vision of humanity. And translated into English for the first time!

DUCKS: TWO YEARS IN THE OIL SANDS by Kate Beaton

I have a special affection for this graphic novel because Beaton’s small hometown is the next one over from where I grew up (we even lived on the Beaton Rd.), and she writes about that place, but beyond that I feel like it’s just a crucial masterwork of memoir (and environmental writing, feminism, humor, dislocation, and much more).

THE HIGH DESERT by James Spooner

This is Spooner’s stirring graphic novel memoir of growing up Black in the mostly white suburban Apple Valley and discovering the promise of punk rock (things like grassroots activism, community-building, DIY culture, self-empowerment and expression) and also the pitfalls (racism, sexism, homophobia) during a formative time in his life. Suitable for older teenagers and adults.

WE’VE GOT TO TRY by Beto O’Rourke   

Not every public figure could write such a compact but illuminating (and urgent) book on voting rights. If you like history (especially that of critically important but not often cited activists in this country’s past) you’ll appreciate as O’Rourke takes a backseat and lets what he’s learned and the people he’s met tell a story to challenge and inspire you.

[physics-of-one-piece]

Get To Know Me

Thank you for the tag, @fanaticsnail ❤️ Sorry I’m late with this one.

Rules: Answer and tag 6 people

Favourite colour: Turquoise & blue, sea blue. I’m a sea kid, what can I say 🌊

Last Song: Rule #34 - Fish in a Birdcage. Everyone was saying it’s a Doffy song and yeh, it’s a Doffy song. It slaps. I love it. I always play it when I write for Doffy.

Currently reading: (goes to my little book corner) It depends on the day. I really like sci-fi, fantasy and detective/crime thrillers but also classical literature. Right now, I’m reading Lady Joker Volume 2 by Kaoru Takamura . Yeah, I know I know, the title is Doffy coded 🤣. I got it as a beach read and it’s very interesting, a crime novel. I’ve been going through it slowly.

Currently watching: Beethoven's Treasure Tail. Yeh, the dog movie, it was on the TV and I like dog movies so, yeh. Otherwise, for TV shows, Lucifer is fun as hell to watch. Funny, too. For anime, most recent one I watched is Skip and Loafer, the mc love interest is a Rosinante look-alike and has a golden retriever personality. Also, I’m planning to put on Lord of the Rings on the TV tonight, I adore those movies. My favourites are Legolas and Gimli, I love their friendship.

Currently craving: Something sweet. A cake. Vanilla and chocolate and biscuits and strawberries… 🤤 Fluffy American pancakes, too! I usually slice bananas and put them in there and add caramel syrup and finish it off with Nutella. Also, shredded biscuits atop! Yum.

Coffee or tea: COFFEE! Well, my stomach reacts better to tea but I always drink coffee, so coffee. I drink iced coffee mostly. When it's cold, hot chocolate is my go-to. Macchiato is nice, too.

No pressure tags: @ladycrocy @moonbaby26 @tuquidflamingo @skullfacedlady @ohnomyhooves @flamboyant-vampire

[death-mark-ng]

Ghosts/Spoiler Names

Death Mark

Masamune Kujou (MC)

Black Rabbit

Hanahiko

Shimi-O/Shinzou Maruo

Hanayome/Seiko Hasegawa

Genta

Miss Zoo/Manabi Zukawa

Kannon Soldier

Red Riding Hood/Sayako Shiina

Death Mark 2

The Departed

Female Doll

Hanako of the toilet/Hanako Akai

Miho Shinji

Slit-Mouth Kashima/Rei Kashima

Pool Spirit

More To Be Added

NG

Momo Kuruse (Kaoru)

Yuri Takamura

Kaguya

Urashima Woman/Himeko Shimezu

Kubitarou of Kintoki/Kaneko Ooishi

Screaming Author/Tsubasa Aoi

Killer Peach/Tomoko Okayama

Yakumo Miroku

D-Man

Demon Tsukuyomi

[poetlcs]

⌜ 2024 book tracker⌝

total: 16/52

historical fiction

the vagrants - yiyun li (jan)

oranges are not the only fruit - jeanette winterson (feb)

lady joker - kaoru takamura (mar)

the heiress - rachel hawkins (mar)

contemporary

act your age, eve brown - talia hibbert (jan)

penance - eliza clarke (jan)

we'll meet again in san francisco - duong thuy (feb)

search history - amy taylor (apr)

beartown - frederik backman (apr)

the sunshine court - nora sakavic (apr)

fantasy

divine rivals - rebecca ross (mar)

romance

relay - leyla reyna (mar)

mystery

the reappearance of rachel price - holly jackson (apr)

historical fiction

in memoriam - alice winn (apr)

classics

down and out in paris and london - george orwell (mar)

non-fiction

bad feminist - roxane gay (jan)

among tigers - k. ullas karanth (feb)

how paris became paris - joean dejean (apr)

dnf

bruny - heather rose (jan)

[onanuine]

a bit of editorial procedural in Kaoru Takamura’s LADY JOKER tr. Marie Iida & Allison Markin Powell. there’s also i.a. iyi horse racing, betting on; beer pricing, R&D; dentistry https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn3BKosP-SKjuX0CoaeJ3H9QAMCrBpvmeTMJ5M0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[booksofdelight]

Lady Joker Volume Two: Book Review

Read our review for Lady Joker Volume Two by Kaoru Takamura!

After reading Lady Joker Volume One it is impossible not to continue and finish the saga. That is why will be reviewing Lady Joker Volume Two by Kaoru Takamura and translated by Allison Markin Powell and Marie Iida. Keep reading to find out what we thought of the book and if you should read it! Lady Joker Volume Two Summary The second novel focuses on the fallout after Lady Joker kidnaps…

[thedemises]

. . .  STRATEGIC TWISTS! featuring kaoru takamura & krystian karmazin!

contains! . . .  lowercase writing, use of the word monster (not in an insulting way..? i mean, its kaoru), pretty much none! notes! . . .  so... im trying out a new... this, whatever you call it— hope ya enjoy this lil drabble i made abt my two silly ocs :]]

with her back to the mostly monochrome jester, kaoru takamura begins, “so,” after outlining her strategy in eliminating her archenemy. she knows that her opponent will employ similar unexpected turns and twists as she did, but thanks to her intelligence, kaoru came very prepared for any planned deception going through her path.

with two allies at her side (albeit only one was willing to participate, the other... not so much, but begrudgingly, they had no choice but to accept), kaoru is confident that the plan will be deftly carried out to guarantee her success.

the hot pink-hued woman turns around and smiles expectantly at krystian karmazin with slim intertwined hands in front of her torso.

“you got it, krystian?”

grinning resolutely—showcasing the two pairs of sharp canines that were different from the rest of his less pointed teeth—the taller individual standing at a freakish 7’6” (228 cm) gives the woman of mildly-wavy hair a thumbs up, expressing his delight in flawlessly executing the intellectual’s plan.

krystian doesn't exactly to do things precisely wrong, unless it involves anything to do with those cunning clever little rodents called rats and mice.

“got it!” he exclaims proudly, well aware of the role he has to play and the tasks he has to do in the plot—quite ironic considering his true thoughts about the plan.

‘got what??’

of course, it must've been tiring keeping up with kaoru and this nemesis of hers' plots with dozens of turns of events.

because, as told by a majority of others spoken around, kaoru takamura is an absolute monster when it comes to strategy. not one person has been recorded to have figured out or outsmart any plan she made against them.

© thedemises 2024. all rights reserved. please do not repost, copy, or claim as your own.  ━━ word count: 293.

[ao3feed-matchablossom]

Los celos vienen del amor

by LeidyCC

Kaoru no es del tipo celoso, pero últimamente la sinverguenzura de Kojiro lo está irritando más de lo que debería… En especial cuando lo ve muy bien acompañado de un desconocido hombre de cabello rosado.

¿Servirá esta intromisión para finalmente dejar salir lo que ha callado en su corazón por tanto tiempo?

Words: 2138, Chapters: 1/1, Language: Español

Fandoms: SK8 the Infinity (Anime), TsukiPro the Animation

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom, Nanjo Kojiro | Joe, Sera Rikka, Takamura Shiki

Relationships: Nanjo Kojiro | Joe/Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom, Sera Rikka/Takamura Shiki

Additional Tags: One-Shot, Sigue con canon, Romance, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, ShikiRikka establecido, Crossover

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/43298751

[littleeyesofpallas]

UKIYO-TSUYA-ZOUSHI[浮世艶草子]

[nevinslibrary]

Mystery/Thriller Monday

This is big, and, I guess Kaoru Takamura is really really big in Japan, but, this is the first time perhaps, that her books have been translated into English? At least, this is the first time that this book has been translated into English, and, it’s such a monster of a book (in only the best way) that it’s actually two volumes (and five parts). Yikes.

It takes place in 1995, and, reading about it after I read it, is based on the 1984 kidnapping of a Japanese executive. The book brings together five very different men with one thing in common, they all bet on horses at the racetrack every Sunday. They’re all struggling, and they decide to kidnap the CEO of Japan’s largest beer company and get a ransom from the company.

It was an endlessly complex book (because, it’s not a simple crime that they want to pull off), touching on capitalism, family, and post-World War II Japan. Amazing.

You may like this book If you Liked: Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon, Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, or Macbeth by Jo Nesbo

Lady Joker by Kaoru Takamura