Sayonara, Gangsters
by Genichiro Takahashi
A review by Gerry Donaghy
Sayonara, Gangsters, the first novel to be translated into English by Japanese
author Genichiro Takahashi, like most post-modernist fiction, defies description;
you just can't sum it up with a synopsis and recommendation. I can't tell you
what it is about. I can't tell you what it's supposed to mean. But, I can tell
you that it is amazing. Sayonara, Gangsters is a virtuoso blending of humor,
nuance, and absurdity. It's set in an unspecified future world where adults give
each other names to save them from being murdered by the names they've chosen
for themselves. It's a world where the government informs you of the upcoming
death of your child; a world where gangsters and the violence they perpetrate
run rampant, but... they're not too busy to learn about poetry. It is alternately
hyper-violent, hysterically funny, and poignantly tender.
There is a scene in the beginning of Sayonara, Gangsters describing
a string of presidential assassinations. One president is killed by an explosive
piece of bubble gum that takes his head clean off of his shoulders. By the time
I finished Sayonara, Gangsters, I felt very much like that ill-fated
president. The only term that comes close to describing this book is mind-blowing.
How mind-blowing is it? This is Naked Lunch, Trout Fishing in America,
Breakfast of Champions mind-blowing.
What really makes Sayonara, Gangsters tick is its obliviousness to logic.
Sure this is a place where dead children continue to ask their parents questions
and Ferris wheels commit suicide, but after a few pages, all of this makes perfect
sense. Takahashi is perfectly adept in creating his own free-floating world
that dissolves and morphs. Scenes shift from idyllic to phantasmagoric without
warning. In other words, the author has mastered the language of dreams. And
just as in dreams, there is no narrative trajectory, just fleeting vignettes
that spring from an unchecked subconscious
If readers are capable of ignoring the voice inside that wants to yell out
that none of this makes sense, they will be well rewarded. It's about feelings
rather than rationality; it's about the journey not the destination. This is
a novel that will immediately captivate daring readers.
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