プリズンホテル2 秋

Prison Hotel #2

by 浅田 次郎

奥湯元あじさいホテル、つまり関東桜会直営のあのホテルで、署長から婦警まで勢揃いの【青山警察署慰安旅行御一行様】と、イケイケの武闘派任侠団体【大曽根一家御一行様】とがはちあわせ。支配人と番頭が青くなって額を突き合わせているところにオーナーの木戸仲蔵とその甥の孝之介もご到着。もとアイドル柏木ナナと往年の大歌手真野みすずも一つ屋根の下。さあさあ皆様お立ち会い！　　監督/吉田純子・編集/三好達也_林岳史

Audible Audio

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Mizuki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review for book 1: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

'~We are the Imperial Army~~our nemesis are~~~~traitors who have no place on this Earth~~'

--a military song from the WWII, a favorite for some of the Prison Hotel's guests (e.g. old fashioned gangsters and far-rightists).

'Doctors, teachers and cops, they are the worst kinds when they get drunken.'

--a comment from the hotel manager.

'If they were honorable people wearing sakura, then we were yakuza holding the sakura badge. Under the sun, there can only be one group bearing the mark of sakura. Let's find out which group shall it be!'

--a cop declaims war against the gangsters in Prison Hotel

After visiting a Japanese hot spring hotel/onsen hotel for the very first time this month, I am happy to be re-reading Prison Hotel: Autumn by Jiro Asada, the second book of Asada's comedy series about a hot spring hotel owned and ran by a 'retired' yakuza boss and his loyal sidekicks.

By mistake, a group of police booked themselves into Prison Hotel, a traditional Japanese hot spring hotel ran by a 'retired' yakuza boss. What will happen next?

This time, the main plot about 'cops and gangsters in the same hot spring hotel' is highly comical but how this confrontation ends is quite underwhelming. The parts I truly enjoy are the parts about the ill-tempered novelist taking his mistress's 5 years old daughter to the Prison Hotel for the holiday, the interaction between these two are amusing and how the novelist changed from 'I hate kids!' to 'I will look after this little girl and offer her best education when she grow up'. So, 3.5 stars.

[Taka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great--

I couldn't put it down. Jiro Asada has the rare gift of portraying outlaws and deficient humans and making them go through Dostoevskian changes and revelations, and he does it with laugh-out-loud humor and genuine human warmth. The upshot is a whirlwind of a story with real emotional resonance.

Simply, unforgettable and infinitely enjoyable.

Hats off to the master.