what is "in the miso soup" about?
There's a short article about it on Wikipedia - just type in the title and you should get it, or search for Ryu Murakami (I'd give you the link, but I'm not allowed to use URLs yet, doh!)
A couple of reviews from Amazon (again, I would just link you to the page if I was able to):
"Ryu Murakami has never written about violence, but about the causes of violence - and not direct, ordinary causes, but the underlying psychological tensions in human beings which lead to violence. The psycopath in the novel, Frank, describes violent tendencies in children as the product of anxiety, an attempt to prove that the world will not collapse when some horrible act is perpetrated. 'Anxiety' is certainly a good term to describe the book, or any of Murakami's - every scene vibrates with an eerie strangeness, and human relations take unexpected turns. In the end, the product is somewhat mystifying, but provides a good read and ample food for thought. What it does best is pair images of extreme innocence and extreme violence, produce alternate reactions of sympathy and disgust, and force a reader to suspend all kinds of belief and judgement until the page-turner narrative is over. Still, what it isn't is a thriller, a character study, or a book with any clear message. The character of Frank could be taken to represent many things - the destructive effect of confused intentions on an insular culture, or a human loneliness common to both this American and the Japanese protagonist, or any misfit lashing out against a restrictive society. In any case, it's one of the most fascinating contemporary novels I've discovered."
"With all of the sex and violence in In the Miso Soup, it would be easy to miss or dismiss Murakami's central purpose in writing this book - to highlight the severe problems and harshly criticize modern Japanese society. America lies within Murakami's cross-hairs as well, but Frank's function is as much to personify America's problems as it is to serve as the "outsider's eye" on Japan's issues.
Much like Coin Locker Babies, In the Miso Soup builds up to a single act of violence, and allows the reader to draw his conclusions from the aftermath. Like most other Murakami stories, violence is both destructive and cathartic, and it is in the scene at the club that the reader fully comprehends Murakami's message. Japan, like Kenji, is empty, lost, materialistic, detached, and passively voyeuristic. America, like Frank, is brutal, naive, judgmental, and schizophrenic. Both have a mutual attraction toward the other as Kenji has always wanted to go to America, and Frank is happy to finally be "in the miso soup". Both have a mutual distaste and distrust for the other as well. There is a fundamental gap between the two as well, one that surpasses language and culture, rooted perhaps in the fact that both cultures are both paradoxically fearful and ambivalent toward strangers and outsiders. It is only after the act of violence that both achieve a kind of understanding and peace, and seek the ideal that is represented by the New Year's bells.
In the Miso Soup is full of the annoying blanket statements and conclusions along the lines of "We Japanese are like this" "You foreigners/Americans are like this" that will probably vex most readers (and especially those of us who lived in Japan and confronted these superficial stereotypes daily) but the points Murakami makes are well taken. Agree with them or not, Murakami has created a chilling parable where he lays bare his thoughts on the pressing social problems of Japan and the US. Whether one looks upon Frank as a mere "virus" or an agent of change also depends on the reader's viewpoint. The scenes of violence will offend many (if not most) readers, but it is my hope that people can and will read past the violence and sex to see the social commentary that lies at the core of Murakami's story.
Frank asks Kenji, "Did that scare you?" but the question stands for the reader as well. If your answer is yes, then Murakami's mission has been accomplished."
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