Strange Pictures is a new book by Uketsu, a mysterious YouTube figure who writes gimmicky mysteries online and insists on dressing in an all black costume and wearing a weird mask like a villain tiptoeing out of a French silent movie. The gimmick in Uketsu's mystery stories is the use of puzzles in the form of ambiguous or encoded drawings and sketches. Strange Pictures is divided into four stories that focus on nine different drawings. Ultimately, the stories are interconnected through the characters and their actions. The premise is certainly promising and tempting enough that I succumbed to the hype. But I was mostly underwhelmed.
The book opens with a foreword that sets the reader up for all that will follow. Tomiko Hagio, a "teaching psychologist", presents a simple child's drawing (see above) to her university students and proceeds to explain the hidden meaning in the picture. It all smacks of the kind of ersatz psychology I despised in the early Gladys Mitchell mystery novels in which Mrs. Bradley pontificates on the psychology of the characters based on the most flimsy of "evidence" drawn from behavior or speech. I'll spare you Dr. Hagio's explanation of the bird in the tree and the pointy ends of the spear like branches in the tree. But this is the sort of "solution" the reader will have to devise if he is to match wits with the "drawing detectives" in the various stories.
The first artistic puzzle related to a woman giving birth to her first child is actually rather ingenious because it relies on genuine out-of-the-box thinking in dealing with two dimensional drawings. I'll only add that those of you who live in the digital world and spend many more hours online than I do will probably catch on sooner than I did. One thing you mustn't do with this book is page through before you read. The solutions to these picture puzzles are blatantly illustrated. A few surprises were ruined when I lost my place, forgetting to put my bookmark in where I left off, then quickly flipped through the book looking for the correct page. In paging through the book I saw flashes of several altered pictures. Caveat lector!
The cleverest part of this book was the way Uketsu connects the various stories. This was really the only reason I kept reading. Eventually one character emerges from the background (originally an "invisible" role), becomes a supporting character, and then is oddly cast as the primary antagonist of the piece. The multi-layering of three seemingly separate stories and how the link up is ingeniously done and there are a handful of surprises that I truly enjoyed. But...
The further the story delves into the interconnection Uketsu begins to slather on shocking developments that escalate from melodrama to histrionics to absurdity. I can admire noir plots with their amoral characters and base motives, but these new writers don't seem to understand what works in noir is an understanding of human nature and not evil for evil's sake, or an abundance of cruelty and over-the-top gruesome violence to shock and repulse. At times I felt the evil characters were so absurd it became laughable. For instance, in the final section a man blackmails a woman into having sex with him all because he wants to traumatize the woman's child and humiliate her simultaneously. He arranges one night of sex so that the child wakes up unexpectedly and witnesses the horrible rape. Ugh!
Another Uketsu creation called Strange Houses is due out in the summer, early June according to the Harper Via website. And it's much shorter at only 144 pages. But even being less than half the length of Strange Pictures I may wait to take it out of the library this time.
Thanks for this, John. I've been in two minds about whether to try Strange Pictures for myself, but I think you've finally convinced me that I can pass.
ReplyDeleteSorry that the honkaku translations haven't been working for you, either. As something of a plot fiend, I'm not so bothered by the lack of depth in the characters -- I try to read broadly in the genre, so I can get that element in other books -- but I can see that it would vex others.
I didn’t really hate it. The first story is the best for the puzzle aspect. It’s the reasoning and motivations that very much trouble me. I didn’t buy any of it. One character is so cartoonish he operates solely on revenge and hatred. All the dislikable features occur in the last third. Up until the revelation of the multiple murderer I thought there was some substance to this book. But after that point it all fell apart. Uketsu tries for drama and poignancy but in the final pages, but I couldn’t feel anything for anyone except the young reporter who is murdered horribly.
Delete"...when I sampled some of the more recent Japanese writers I was always bothered by the emphasis on puzzles and the utter lack of real characters."
ReplyDeleteI don't see the problem.
Seriously, I enjoyed Strange Pictures as something different, yet slightly familiar, but can understand why it's not to everyone's taste. Strange Houses looks to be closer to the traditional detective story, centered on floor plans instead of drawings, but doubt you'll find the characterization an improvement. Strange House is reportedly better plotted than Strange Pictures. So there's that.
By the way, when you say recent, you mean Japanese writers from the past 10-20 years? Pushkin Vertigo is going to publish Yasuhiko Nishizawa's 1995 hybrid mystery The Man Who Died Seven Times later this year. That one looks to have a more character-driven story and plot.
I'm sort of hypocritical in a way, I guess. I'm willing to suspend disbelief and let surreal plots take over in many of my favorite American writers' books and a handful of the GAD Brits. There are books like The Rim of the Pit where it is all artifice and weirdness and nothing really makes sense, but it's so well written and the characters seem alive and determined to put an end to the violence. There was just something off about Uketsu's book that bothered me. The mix of amorality and sentimentality didn't work for me.
DeleteI'd thought I was alone in not liking Moai Puzzle very much, though I did read all the way through.
ReplyDeleteBased on Tomcat's review I had been intrigued, but your more revealing descriptions suggest it's not the kind of thing I'm after, after all. Perhaps if it lands in a library near me, because the premise is still intriguing...
Doesn't seem to be my cup of tea. The only Japanese mystery author whose works I have read is Keigo Higashino. I used to enjoy him immensely till I read Journey under the Midnight Sun. That books was so off-putting that now I have a mental block about picking him up again.
ReplyDelete