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

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The second half of Takamura’s compelling crime epic—following Lady Joker, Volume 1 (2021)—plumbs the connections between corporate malfeasance and social immorality. This is a huge novel, one to get lost in. As a western reader, the world described is quite foreign: the importance of organisations and companies, the different strata of Japanese society, the influence of the underworld, and the machinations of the political system. As I wrote in my review of volume 1, there is no explanatory glossary. I have come to the conclusion that I could live with out one, just immersed myself in this recognisable but slightly strange world. PDF / EPUB File Name: Lady_Joker_Volume_2_-_Kaoru_Takamura.pdf, Lady_Joker_Volume_2_-_Kaoru_Takamura.epub Admirers of intricate crime fiction, which both engages the intellect and offers insights into the hidden parts of a society, will hope for further translations of this gifted author’s work.” Takamura’s eye for detail and storytelling prowess are astonishing . . . It’s possible to read Lady Joker in various ways—as a mystery novel, a police procedural, or a cautionary tale of corporate risk management. I read it as an exploration of the original sin of human existence . . . The depth of empathy readers will feel for this book’s characters directly corresponds with the author’s insight on the intersections of human existence.”

Lady Joker, Volume 2 by Kaoru Takamura | Goodreads Lady Joker, Volume 2 by Kaoru Takamura | Goodreads

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.” An immense and extraordinary feat of writing and translation that has been long-awaited in English, Lady Joker is at once a thriller and a sweeping cultural history of Japan, a love story and a work of poignant social commentary.”Not surprisingly, the mood gets darker, and, for some, their involvement is at great cost. Others emerge unscathed but changed. The ending has its sudden surprises and its inevitability. 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. Hinging on a kidnapping plot, Takamura’s prismatic heist novel offers a broad indictment of capitalist society.” One of Japan’s great modern writers, this second half of Lady Joker brings Kaoru Takamura’s breathtaking masterpiece to a gripping conclusion. Hallelujah! Inspired by the real-life, still unsolved Glico-Morinaga kidnapping and extortion case that led to the nationwide hunt for ‘The Monster with Twenty-one Faces,’ Kaoru Takamura’s Lady Joker is at last available in translation; epic in its scale and vision, yet gripping from first to last, this is one of the great masterpieces of Japanese crime fiction and one of the must-read books of this or any year.”

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

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. Lady Joker reads like Don DeLillo’s Underworld rewritten by James Ellroy, or perhaps LA Confidential rewritten by Don DeLillo? What I’m trying to say here is, Lady Joker is EPIC.” 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

Lady Joker, Vol. 2

With respect to the audiobook, actor Brian Nishii has narrated a wide range of titles and has a golden, resonant voice that was a pleasure to listen to. 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. In 1947, Seiji Okamura wrote a letter to Hinode Beer describing unfair termination of employment. Okamura, like many other "resigned employees" was destitute. "My body always remembered poverty...I am sensitive to sounds and smells...when I inhale...they seep through me...settling in my empty stomach...a futile and unchanging past...". Okamura's threatening letter from half a century ago would resurface. Was the 1947 letter still relevant in the 1990's? Was Hinode Beer compliant with any sinister criminal behavior? Were there deeply buried secrets? 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. This book is also about Japanese corporate culture and how boardroom politeness and ass-kissing and ass-covering inaction result in tragedies such as suicide, murder, and organized crime ties! Sounds like a great book for me and all my people on Goodreads!

Lady Joker, Volume 2 by Kaoru Takamura: 9781641293952

The story is inspired by the unsolved Glico-Morinaga kidnapping that took place in 1984. The narrative moves between the conspirators, the executives of the company, journalists, and the police. Takamura’s challenging, genre-confounding epic offers a sweeping view of contemporary Japan in all its complexity.” 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.” Centered around an extortion case involving a beer company, Lady Joker would ordinarily be categorized in the crime or mystery novel genre, yet the book deserves to be called an exemplary literary work that depicts contemporary society . . . A magnum opus . . . It requires extraordinary skill to fully depict the ambivalence of Japanese society, in all its detail. Reading Lady Joker together with James Ellroy’s American Tabloid and the drama behind the Kennedy assassination serves as an intriguing comparison. Viewing a society through the lens of a crime is like examining a disease or a corpse to get at the person: it exposes the foundations of human existence.” 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.One of Japan’s great modern masters, Kaoru Takamura, makes her English-language debut with this two-volume publication of her magnum opus. This is the first volume of work published by Kaoru Takamura in the English language, although the author has published 13 novels to date in her native Japan. Lady Joker is inspired by the true life crime kidnapping an extortion by “the monster with the 21 faces” in the early 1980s which saw a targeted campaign against confectionery companies where the perpetrator(s) were never discovered. 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. Through the working class, and executives, the police force and media, author Kaoru Takamura brings to her readers a Japan which is complicated and often corrupt. The disenfranchised working class who commit a crime seem no better (or worse) than the corporate executives who commit crimes in their own, more subtle, ways.”

Lady Joker, Volume One by Kaoru Takamura | Goodreads Lady Joker, Volume One by Kaoru Takamura | Goodreads

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. 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. 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.

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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. 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.