Evil and the
Mask is one of
those books that captivate the reader not so much with their plot and
action but with the interactions between its heroes in a society that
seems to be on the brink of destruction.
Most of the
people in the west expect murder and mayhem and high-octane
adventures when they read crime fiction. There’s a little bit of
the above in this story, but not enough to thrill someone. Instead
the author offers a story that talks about the cruelty of a father,
the redemption of a son and a love affair that’s bound to go
terribly wrong.
The said
father, a ruthless businessman, tells his young son, Fumihiro that
he’ll become a cancer, a personification of evil under his
guidance, and the child feels that there’s darkness inside of him
already. He hates his father and he’s determined to kill him one
day and thus fulfill his prophecy. Until then though he must do his
best to resist his authority and enjoy life a little. Enter Kaori, a
young girl who’s adopted into the family, with whom Fumihiro grows
up and inevitably falls in love with. He knows that his father will
do everything to stop him from being happy, and later rather than
sooner decides to take matters into his own hands. Will this pursue
of happiness lead him to his doom or will it change his life once and
for all for the better?
“Happiness is
a fortress,” we read somewhere, and one can rest assured that apart
perhaps from the worst of people in these pages, not many can enter
it. Instead they keep wandering in the streets of the night, like
people with fake faces and mistaken identities; people who have
nothing to lose because their lives never really belonged to them.
Fuminori
Nakamura, whose excellent previous novel The
Thief I've read in
one sitting, has his characters interact in peculiar ways. While
they’re desperately trying to find their way in an ever changing
world, they are held back by the ghosts of the past; while they need
love, they thrive in pain; and while they fight hard to be good, they
end up exactly the opposite.
As we follow
these people we get to learn a lot of things, not only about modern
Japan, but also about the loneliness that has become the plague of
our times, and the cynicism that seems to drive a lot of people’s
actions.
Perhaps this is
one of those few special occasions when the title of a book describes
perfectly its content. The evil is personified in two people in here;
the mask in another two. The characters come alive because the author
seemingly keeps his distance from them, and his story is captivating
for the simple reason that most of the time things in life don’t
turn out as we want them to.
Nakamura chose
to narrate his story by moving back and forth in time, thus providing
miniscule clues, from chapter to chapter, about how things are going
to play out. And yet, because he’s a Japanese author and doesn’t
have to abide by the rule of the happy ending, he manages to surprise
the reader. You don’t have to be a fan of the genre to enjoy this
tale; but even if you are, once you’re not looking for blockbuster
fiction you’re bound to love it, as its not larger than life heroes
and its simplicity win the day. As a conclusion I’d say that the
crime is not so important here, since it only serves as the means
that justify the end.
First published in Crime Factory magazine
