Book Review: Underground
Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche by Haruki Murakami, published by Vintage, 2001. Paperback, 384 pages. (Amazon)
Murakami, the well-known Japanese author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Wild Sheep Chase, and others, decided to tackle a non-fiction account of the 1995 poison gas attack in the Tokyo subway because the Japanese media ignored the plight of the victims, both the survivors and the deceased, in favor of focusing on the Aum "cult" who perpetrated the crime. The author adopted a style similar to Studs Terkel (who he acknowledges in the preface) by transcribing interviews with survivors and friends and family of those killed. Going into the book I was a bit disappointed that Murakami's signature style would take a backseat to the interviewee's voices, though as I read the book I was taken by the simplicity of each account, both in language and structure. This can partly be attributed to the english language translation and the author's editing of the interviews. Regardless, the shock, confusion, anger and other emotions come through very clearly. What comes forward in the text are the effects of the sarin gas, particularly the lingering effects, making the initial act even less excusable. Like many of Murakami's writing, the english translation compiles two separate works, Underground and The Place That Was Promised, the latter featuring interviews of Aum members. But after reading over 200 pages of first-hand accounts of the attack, it's difficult to sympathize with Aum, though one does walk away with a skepticism of the media's over-simplification of issues and their glorification of destructive events.
Murakami, the well-known Japanese author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Wild Sheep Chase, and others, decided to tackle a non-fiction account of the 1995 poison gas attack in the Tokyo subway because the Japanese media ignored the plight of the victims, both the survivors and the deceased, in favor of focusing on the Aum "cult" who perpetrated the crime. The author adopted a style similar to Studs Terkel (who he acknowledges in the preface) by transcribing interviews with survivors and friends and family of those killed. Going into the book I was a bit disappointed that Murakami's signature style would take a backseat to the interviewee's voices, though as I read the book I was taken by the simplicity of each account, both in language and structure. This can partly be attributed to the english language translation and the author's editing of the interviews. Regardless, the shock, confusion, anger and other emotions come through very clearly. What comes forward in the text are the effects of the sarin gas, particularly the lingering effects, making the initial act even less excusable. Like many of Murakami's writing, the english translation compiles two separate works, Underground and The Place That Was Promised, the latter featuring interviews of Aum members. But after reading over 200 pages of first-hand accounts of the attack, it's difficult to sympathize with Aum, though one does walk away with a skepticism of the media's over-simplification of issues and their glorification of destructive events.
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