Gray Men

by Tomotake Ishikawa, Jonathan Lloyd-Davies (Translator)

Winner of the 2011 Golden Elephant Award for International Genre Fiction.

A young staffer at a jewelry store in Tokyo's posh Ginza district wants to take his own life. No longer able to bear the intense workplace bullying that besets him in the wake of an unjust costumer complaint. As Ryotaro looks for a place to die, he is accosted by a mysterious figure dressed head-to-toe in gray who purports to be able to identify those who are contemplating suicide. When the youth is saved from himself, he has no idea that the elegant robbery in broad daylight for which he is being recruited is no more than the middle act of a rebellion against the ONE PERCENT!

A vendetta for the times of Anonymous, The Occupy Movement, and the Arab Spring, Ishikawa's Gray Men hints at how darkly skeptical a materially based nation from the Far East has become of its very social fabric and economic structure. With its share of heists, hideaways and heinous villains, this award-winning novel is bound to remind readers who fondly recall tramping after the Count of Monte Cristo and Maurice Lebalnc's Arsene Lupin that the old-school is often new.

Genres: Japan, Crime, Japanese Literature

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 24, 2012

Reviews

[Sae-chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is so deserved the Golden Elephant Award. It is the voice of lower-middle class people around the world, whole number is increasing dramatically (my personal observation, no statistical data). The upper-middle class number is thinning, and the gap between the haves and the have-nots has become an abyss. So redistribution will certainly come very soon, I just hope it doesn't spill too much blood.

The story is pulpy, the ending indulging, and the literary quality acceptable. Thus the three-star rating.

[Elsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young man contemplating suicide is approached by a "gray man" and drawn into an elaborate and diabolical revenge scheme designed to topple the highest echelons in Japanese society. A quick and enjoyable read for those who like their mysteries a little brutal and twisted.

[Diana Otani]

Love the Japanese mystery style.

[Iris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ryotaro has had enough of the relentless bullying at his workplace. As he is sitting on a park bench ready to commit suicide, a mysterious man in a gray suit sits down next to him, claims to be able to see what Ryotaro is up to and convinces him to live just a bit longer. After Ryotaro has helped the man with a jewellery heist in broad daylight, he is introduced to other people who were saved from the brink of death. Together, they are ready to implement and even die for Gray’s plan to destroy the current rule of the One Percent and to give power back to the disenfranchised of society.

This is an extraordinary thriller I couldn’t put down and I return to ever so often. The things the rich and powerful do – and get away with – are depicted in gory detail at times. And when at the end push comes to shove and Gray threatens to take it all away from them, you see the real lengths they are willing to go through to protect who they are and what they have. You are left wondering how far fiction goes and what might really go on behind those expensive facades.

[J.C. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first half but the second half felt like a chore. Probably wouldn't recommend.

[Francine Chu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sucky cover, ok story & unsatisfactory ending