Lady Joker: Volume 2: The Million Copy Bestselling 'Masterpiece of Japanese Crime Fiction'

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You are either going to love this or hate this book. It is slow (and apparently there are four volumes) and much of this first book is leading up to the events that form the end section of this volume and set up the next. In part, it is a look at the focus on business and how that effects the people who work for the business, in this case beer company and how it impacts various people.

LADY JOKER, VOLUME 1 | Kirkus Reviews LADY JOKER, VOLUME 1 | Kirkus Reviews

This is the most complete crime story I have read in years. Greed, extortion, murder, disappearances, corruption and criminal gangs are all part of this vast epic that forms around one main crime – the kidnapping of the president and CEO of Hinode Beer by five societal outsiders whose only connection is a shared love of horse racing. In Lady Joker volume 1, we read of the development and unfolding of the plot and the immediate aftermath. Lady Joker volume 2 follows the investigation into the kidnapping over the course of the following year. Like Ellroy’s American Tabloid and Carr’s The Alienist, the book uses crime as a prism to examine dynamic periods of social history . . . Takamura’s blistering indictment of capitalism, corporate corruption and the alienation felt by characters on both sides of the law from institutions they once believed would protect them resonates surprisingly with American culture.” Inspired by the real-life Glico-Morinaga kidnapping, an unsolved case that terrorized Japan for two years, Lady Joker reimagines this watershed episode in modern Japanese history. I understand that this is a cultural touchstone of crime literature in Japan, that it's taught in schools and considered a significant work. I liked the prologue a lot but the next couple chapters were REALLY slow and I could feel myself losing interest. I recently said in a review of another work that I don't mind character-driven books where nothing happens as long as I'm engaged, but if I'm not engaged and I'm not particularly invested in the characters, it just becomes a test of wills. For some people, I think this is going to be an instant favorite because of the ponderous pacing and really thoughtful prose (the translators seem to have done an excellent job), but I urge you to read the sample if you have doubts to see if you think it would work for you. Yet while there are acute observations of Japanese life there is also much that is recognisable about modern capitalism in Lady Joker. There is a lot of focus on the beer company and the trials and tribulations of Hinode will be recognised by many working in industries where one firm has a near monopoly of the market and remains desperate to hang onto its market share. There are multiple risks to the company, including from the kidnappers who threaten to damage their product, the opportunities for corporate exploitation by established and organised crime groups as well as the very real threat of having their finances scrutinised by the authorities.I heard so much good things about this book and was so excited to be able to final read it, but it just didn't meet my expectations. I probably wouldn't have finished it, if it wasn't an ARC. I found it far too detailed and slow. And to make matters worse that detail did nothing to build a picture of the setting or give me much understanding of Japanese culture. Nor was there atmosphere or tension. It just felt like reams and reams of useless information. It was very long and only started to get going about 90% of the way in, which confused me, as I couldn't see how they could wrap up the story. Some how I missed that this was only volume one of the story! I don't think I'll ever find out how this ends. This is a hard book to rate. The translation and writing style is wonderful, to an extent. I find the story quite wordy yet the minute details are what shapes the characters. Skimming the text would have portrayed the characters flatter than they are. I can definitely understand readers finding the characters flat regardless but to me, they felt very much so as I'd expect for a Japanese translated work. DNF at 47%. Although Lady Joker is by no means a horrible book, I just cannot motivate myself to finish it. It is boring and repetitive, the characters are neither nuanced nor interesting enough to keep me invested, and I do not see the plot going anywhere.

Lady Joker: Volume 1: The Million Copy Bestselling Lady Joker: Volume 1: The Million Copy Bestselling

A cast or dramatis personae is provided at the start of the book which becomes increasingly useful as following the initial chapters we follow the story from a range of perspectives. Impressive, very large-scale crime(-and-more) novel of post-war Japan . . . Lady Joker is anything but your usual mystery.” Like Don DeLillo’s Underworld, Takamura’s sprawling saga situates its crime plot in the context of corruption . . . A complex work of stunning breadth and depth by a master of the genre.” Takamura’s challenging, genre-confounding epic offers a sweeping view of contemporary Japan in all its complexity.” A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

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Lady Joker’ was originally published as ‘Redi jōkā’ in Japan in 1997 and was translated from the Japanese by Marie Iida and Allison Markin Powell. Both volumes open with a handy Dramatis Personae. It is well worth the wait for anyone interested in a panoramic portrait of modern Japanese society, including its dark corners, as well as fans of intelligent mysteries.” This isn't always the case, and at times the story really flies along. It's not even that there is more action happening, it just eases up on double and triple explanations.

Lady Joker, Volume Two Download [PDF] [EPUB] Lady Joker, Volume Two Download

The book starts with a letter from Seiji Okamura to the Hinode Beer Company written in June 1947. He was one of forty employees who resigned from the company’s Kanagawa factory. It transpires in his letter that he is a member of the Baraku people - meaning Hamlet people who are a caste-like minority and the largest discriminated against population in Japan. The letter alleges that these employees received discrimination for being at the bottom of the traditional social herirachy and also for their attempts to have union recognition. The cynical nature of the capitalist society is also represented through the actions of the police. Their determination to try to locate the missing CEO and find the kidnappers is equalled by their resolve to prevent any kind of deal behind the eyes of the public. It is very evident that the people already appear to hold very little trust in business and political leaders. Thirdly there is very much familiarity with the journalists who dedicate their resources to following the key men of Hinode. Their ambition to establish the truth is done with the sole intention of getting that scoop piece of news that they can break ahead of their competitors at other publications. While this novel was written in 1997 in Japan, it can be argued that it’s condemnatory views of the actions of powerful businesses, the police and the press hold a mirror to those of us in the west in the current age will equally recognise. What does it take to break someone? Debt, life-circumstances, tragedy? Life is more than just one bad day, it is the strains of injustices that the body sustains and remembers. This is second volume in the story—and a long story it is, but good, too. The action has gone on to include more than just Lady Joker’s crimes, and all the characters have different problems to deal with. PDF / EPUB File Name: Lady_Joker_Volume_2_-_Kaoru_Takamura.pdf, Lady_Joker_Volume_2_-_Kaoru_Takamura.epubHinging on a kidnapping plot, Takamura’s prismatic heist novel offers a broad indictment of capitalist society.”

Lady Joker: Volume 2: The Million Copy Bestselling Lady Joker: Volume 2: The Million Copy Bestselling

This second half of Lady Joker, by Kaoru Takamura, the Grand Dame of Japanese crime fiction, concludes the breathtaking saga introduced in Volume One. Inspired by the real-life Glico-Morinaga kidnapping, an unsolved case which terrorized Japan for two years, Lady Joker reimagines the circumstances of this watershed episode in modern Japanese history and brings into riveting focus the lives and motivations of the victims, the perpetrators, the heroes and the villains. As the shady networks linking corporations to syndicates are brought to light, the stakes rise, and some of the professionals we have watched try to fight their way through this crisis will lose everything–some even their lives. Will the culprits ever be brought to justice? More importantly–what is justice? Lady Joker, Volume Two by Kaoru Takamura – eBook Details

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Takamura joins American writers James Ellroy, author ofAmerican Tabloid, and Don Winslow, author of several novels about the drug trade, to illuminate a society in which power and money matter far more than morality. All three write mysteries that also function as morality plays . . . Bravura.” TL;DR: Cool book, lots of detail, complex characters. Slow at times, but in the end a captivating crime drama that educates as much as it entertains. 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. My thanks to John Murray Press U.K. Baskerville for an eARC and to John Murray Press U.K. Audio for a review copy of the unabridged audiobook edition, both via NetGalley, of ‘Lady Joker Volume 2’ by Kaoru Takamura. The audiobook is narrated by Brian Nishii. We then encounter the eldderly Monoi and his friends from the racecourse including Yo-Chan - a Zainichi (Korean), Nunokawa who struggles through life with a mentally handicapped teenage daughter, and a police sergeant called Handa. Each feels that they have been left neglected within modern Japanese society. Together they devise a plan to kidnap the president and CEO of Hinode - Kyosuke Shiroyama and then hold the company to ransom.