虚無への供物 Kyomu E No Kumotsu

by Hideo Nakai, 中井英夫

戦後の推理小説ベスト3に数えられ、闇の世界にひときわ孤高な光芒を放ち屹立する巨篇ついにその姿を現す！井戸の底に潜む3人の兄弟。薔薇と不動と犯罪の神秘な妖かしに彩られた4つの密室殺人は、魂を震撼させる終章の悲劇の完成とともに。漆黒の翼に読者を乗せ、めくるめく反世界へと飛翔する。

Genres: Fiction, Mystery

668 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kyomu E No Kumotsu, or Offerings to the Void ('Offrande au neant', and it's from a pome, Le Vin perdu) or 獻給虛無的供物, was a crime and mystery novel by Japanese novelist Hideo Nakai. This is one of the books famed as the 'Four Books of Wonders' in the field of Japanese crime and mystery novels.

Well... 'Four Books of Wonders'? Let's call these four books 'Four Books of Mind Fuck' or 'The Four Most Mind-Fucking Books' among the Japanese crime and mystery novels. It's what these books really are.

Reading process@30/05/2022: I am in the middle of getting mind fucked by this book again. LOL

What’s what in the story:
In post-war Japan, a group of young men and women gathered in a gay bar and discussed a series of mysterious death that took place in a decaying rich family (their friend happened to be a member of this ‘cursed’ family). Was the Curse of the Snake God which supposedly haunted the family real or was the amateur detectives getting too ahead of themselves with their guesswork?

Were those mysterious cases of accidents and suicide just coincidence, or was there a wicked mastermind pulling the strings while plotting the death of an entire family?

This novel is…a mind fuck, as you might have already noticed.


Once again, the author kept throwing his book bags at you with his knowledge of mythology, history, Japanese and Western literature, occultism and religions etc, etc. If you like these spicy things you will like this book, I guess. The amateur detectives in the story also kept throwing one hypothesis after another to 'determine' who the supposed murderer really was. The answer to who the murderer really is just keep changing, sometimes even the murdered victim also had a hidden agenda, sometimes we can't even be sure whether a shady character is a real person or not, so everything is pretty confusing at times. That's pretty much the whole story.

But I do like some of the supposed schemes and some of the explanations about what is truly going on here.

The Four Books of Wonders:

Dogra Magra, by Kyūsaku Yumeno, (Translation: Encephalon Hell or Pericardium Hell, or Braincell Hell): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

My review for 'Kokushikan Satsujin Jiken' (Translation: Murder At the Mansion of Black Death): https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

匣の中の失楽, by 竹本健治, (Translation: The Lost Music in the Box): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

虚無への供物 by 中井英夫, (Translation: Offerings to the Void): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

My short reviews for the Four Books of Wonders in Chinese:

日系推理四大奇書-讀後短評

《腦髓地獄》：讀者慘被作者直接掟入精神病院，冇鎖匙冇逃生出口。
《黑死館殺人事件》：出場人物全部是紙片人死多少也沒所謂，而且作者我知道你很懂occultism，可以說點其他話題了嗎?
《匣中的失樂》：佈局十分巧妙，但內容真的缺乏思想性...
《獻給虛無的供物》：比較有傳統推理小說格局的作品，mind fuck程度相對比較一般，但也有可觀性。

每看一本腦袋也會被結結實實地mind fuck一頓，四大奇書各有特色，但它們的缺點和對讀者不友善的地方也同樣明顯。

[Fehn · Rating 5 out of 5]

2015的閱讀筆記：

文學性強烈。然而因為必須非常集中精神閱讀文句中的能指所指以及進行抽象想像，睡眠缺乏的情況我看得屢屢快睡著……論象徵，凡是提到顏色啊（誕生）寶石啊和花語祝福寓意一樣之於我都是絲毫感覺不到共感的存在。如果再加上花香就更慘了。對花的氣味能逐漸接受也是近年的事。

另外遲緩的原因或許是多重推理吧。（縱使以局外人角度來看有點wtf你們還好嗎）然而推理中又充滿「精神上如此所以渴望追求ｏｏｘｘ以致ｘｘｏｏ」文學性所以份量特別足，難以消化。另外不時冒出「殺人者懂得想得還真特么多如此深刻寓意還聯想得如此文藝都能當文壇祭酒了」的突兀感。

以及時代差距……瓦斯設計是怎回事。還有這群人到底是以推理為樂還是現實為譜，搬推理規則出來講也是醉（作者到底是想諷刺還是彼時真的很新奇）。 ​

閱畢。莫名受到某種「這才是在創作啊！」的精心布局程度鼓舞。沒個章節是在偷懶的，也不是現今常有的詭計→解謎的簡單作品。我的天，這不是通俗小說，而是傾注個人能力素養的宏偉之作。雖然最終透過人物傾訴內容宛若蛇精病，那也是，屬於文學作品典型的蛇精病。嗯，給予很高的評價。 ​

不我根本不能站在高處給這作品評價……就像對自動販賣機說好棒裡面什麼都有的路人甲一樣。#謎之感動#

（去日本旅遊時）因為陳列架上的商品（birthday bunko)發現生日跟作者同日。大概是電波感召。

[Jimyip · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author called it an anti-detective fiction. Understand the cruelty of treating people's deaths as mere puzzles, mysteries to solve, and you would understand the story itself. Beneath its surface, like many it is a reprimand on the apathetic and thrill-seeking modern society.

[singingdalong · Rating 4 out of 5]

中井英夫の『虚無への供物』は、日本ミステリにおける「三大奇書」の一つに数えられる、まさに限界を打ち破った伝説的なアンチ・ミステリです。氷沼家で連続する不可解な死をめぐり、4人の素人探偵たちが息つく暇もなく繰り広げる推理合戦は、時に荒唐無稽で暴力的なまでの妄想対決にも見えます。しかし、その奇怪で衒学的な言葉の応酬に翻弄されるうち、分厚いページ数を忘れてしまうほどの知的な酩酊感に引き込まれていきます。

本作の真の恐ろしさと美しさは、推理という行為そのものが内包する「残酷さ」を痛烈に皮肉っている点にあります。未曾有の大惨事（洞爺丸事故）の直後であるにもかかわらず、他人の悲劇をまるで「スリル」を味わうための極上のパズルとして貪り食う素人探偵たち――そしてそれを傍観して楽しむ私たち読者。ミステリという知的遊戯に隠された人間の破廉恥な本性を暴き出す手腕は、まさに「反推理小説」の真骨頂です。

最近の平易な小説とは一線を画す、冷笑的でありながらユーモアと気品に満ちた精緻な文章力も本作の大きな魅力です。すべての真相を知ったとき、「他人の不幸を無責任に消費して楽しむ我々読者こそが狂っているのではないか」という戦慄と虚脱感に襲われます。推理小説の醍醐味と哲学的な深淵を同時に味わうことができる、類まれなる傑作です。（星4評価）

ブログで詳しいレビューを読む

[Twig · Rating 2 out of 5]

很拖拉的故事，很多情節滿多餘或顯得刻意，案件的編造有點不自然，結局也不精彩，很難抓人注意力，看得頗累。優點是文字挺優雅，還有引申滿多推理名作，可以感受到作者對推理小說的熱愛。

[James Woo · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

有种奇怪的感觉，其实我可能比能够承认的更喜欢这个故事