果てしなき渇き [Hateshinaki Kawaki]

by Akio Fukamachi, 深町 秋生

失踪した娘を捜し求めるうちに、徐々に“闇の奥”へと遡行していく父。娘は一体どんな人間なのか――。ひとりの少女をめぐる、男たちの狂気の物語。その果てには……。

全選考委員が圧倒された暗き情念の衝撃作！！

Genres: Japan, Japanese Literature

509 pages, Paperback Bunko

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Japanese Profile: 深町 秋生

Reviews

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew I had to read the book as soon as I completed the movie. I had to read the book because the movie was nice and engaging overall, but it missed the personal connection, the stories of the characters, and an understanding of how they thought. It was a large book with inconsistent translations, but fortunately I was able to grasp it. If I had to choose between the two, I would choose the movie. Although the book is unnecessarily long and far more demeaning than the movie, I should remember that I started reading it for that reason, so I can't really complain.

[Claudia · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not that it's badly written, technically it is a good story about a father looking for his daughter. However, my facial expression during this read was mainly one of shock and disgust... If you're into crazy people, violence and rape, this might be the book for you?

[sylvia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This took quite a while to read because it was physically impossible for me to finish one page without getting up and pacing around the room, thinking about what the hell I just read.

So here's the pipeline... I find a cool movie free on YouTube. It's rated TV-14 (fat lie.) I watch it. My mind is absolutely blown. I don't get anything that's happening, nor do I understand how any of the events in the film are systematic. But I liked it because it was nice and interesting, the characters are cool, the aesthetics were decent on a good day and okay on a bad day, and it was overall engaging enough for me to watch it in one sitting. At the end of the movie, it mentions that this is actually a film adaptation of a novel. "Nice," I think to myself, "there's my next read!" And here I am.

Hateshinaki Kawaki (translating to Endless Thirst, abbreviated to ET,) is a thriller novel written by author Akio Fukamachi. A film adaptation of this novel was released around 2014 titled The World of Kanako. ET revolves around a former deadbeat dad detective trying to find (and kill...?) his missing daughter, soon evolving to a pool of maniacal and barely consistent shock factor sludge. I expected this to be a good book, because it was a good movie. A bit of a crazy movie, but a good movie at that.

This was not a good book, to say the least...

I'm not sure about the original novel (I'm not Japanese,) but I read an English translation of this story somewhere online and it was LONG. So is the book I am currently reading right now, but this one was unnecessarily lengthy. A simple premise like this shouldn't even require half of the page count ET has.

And oh, was it crazy...

Apparently the (already) nefarious movie was actually slightly censored to not include most of the more messed up stuff. Which means this book is even more nefarious. So if the movie was too much for you, please please PLEASE do not read this book. I genuinely would not recommend this to anyone in their right mind.

Long story short, 3.5/10. Maybe a 2. I bumped it up out of pity (and because the actual storytelling wasn't that bad, though way too long.) Don't read if you like your life. If you hate your life, go for it!

[アマチュア読者 · Rating 4 out of 5]

很難去比較電影跟小說誰的力道比較強，電影就是拍得這麼好

可能因為我先看了電影，閱讀小說時，會不由自主地被節奏帶著走。

小說中補遺了許多電影選擇隱藏的事。

電影將加奈子妖魔化(本來想寫神化，但想了想，果然還是妖魔吧)。
讓加奈子看起來毫無情感。
目空一切。

但是小說中即便是透過他人之口，還是給了我們一個候補的答案，關於那深不可測永無止境的黑洞的成因。

無可救藥的人們。

是什麼樣的想法電影選擇改寫整個小山內的人生，讓藤島選擇將孩子拉離即將強暴的現場
並促使小山內對妻子按下板機?

是什麼念頭讓電影使用了聖誕節作黏合劑不停地連接過去和現在。

藤島在電影中患有精神疾病，被閹割吸毒是為了營造什麼?

如果可以不停地、讓電影中的藤島喝水就好了。
至少這樣能將罪壓到他身上。

但不，電影完全就是要讓藤島看起來擁有遺失已久的父愛。
而不是小說中那徹頭徹尾失職的父親。
如果你姦淫了你的女兒，你會開出無法計量的黑洞。

你損毀了，不只你一人的人生。

我不知道這樣講對不對

小說的重心比較放在家庭的崩壞導致出少女的糜爛跟瘋狂。

但是電影的重心卻是放在男人怎麼也無法將從少女那裡得到的無力、空虛、頹廢感打擊回去。
即便少女被擊潰了，也是被女人所擊潰的。
電影給我一種男性的挫敗和難以形容的某種雄性美學式的英雄主義。

我在小說中印象最深刻的是男人看著錄影帶的部分
但在電影裡卻是最終的房間，說到房間很難不去聯想到今敏的< 藍色恐懼>。
還沒看小說的我看完電影後，覺得電影可以結局停在房間的橋段就好。
但小說中卻沒有那房間的場景，那讓最後一幕顯得十分合理，加奈子象徵著中年男子永遠無法駁回的挫敗感。
你可以去追去找去占有，但那都不再是原本的樣子了。
那麼電影中的房間為什麼會令我感到目眩神迷呢，應該是因為我認為被神化了的女主角，就應該活在鏡中的世界吧。
而不是被誰砍了頭，被誰戳了傷。
那樣平凡的死法。