猿の見る夢

by Natsuo Kirino, 桐野夏生

現在の薄井の楽しみは、十年来の愛人しかなかった。それなのに逢い引きに急ぐところを会長に呼び止められ、社長のきなくさいセクハラ問題を耳打ちされる。家に帰れば、妻が占い師を知らぬ間に連れ込んでいる。女のマンションで機嫌をとって朝帰りすれば、妹から電話で母が亡くなったと知らされた。「なぜみんな俺を辛い立場に立たせる?」欲深い59歳の男はついにある一線を越えてしまう。もっとも過激な「定年小説」!

624 pages, Paperback

First published August 9, 2016

About the author

NATSUO KIRINO (桐野夏生), born in 1951 in Kanazawa (Ishikawa Prefecture) was an active and spirited child brought up between her two brothers, one being six years older and the other five years younger than her. Kirino's father, being an architect, took the family to many cities, and Kirino spent her youth in Sendai, Sapporo, and finally settled in Tokyo when she was fourteen, which is where she has been residing since. Kirino showed glimpses of her talent as a writer in her early stages—she was a child with great deal of curiosity, and also a child who could completely immerse herself in her own unique world of imagination.

After completing her law degree, Kirino worked in various fields before becoming a fictional writer; including scheduling and organizing films to be shown in a movie theater, and working as an editor and writer for a magazine publication. She got married to her present husband when she turned twenty-four, and began writing professionally, after giving birth to her daughter, at age thirty. However, it was not until Kirino was forty-one that she made her major debut. Since then, she has written thirteen full-length novels and three volumes of collective short stories, which are highly acclaimed for her intriguingly intelligent plot development and character portrayal, and her unique perspective of Japanese society after the collapse of the economic bubble.

Today, Kirino continues to enthusiastically write in a range of interesting genres. Her smash hit novel OUT (Kodansha, 1997) became the first work to be translated into English and other languages. OUT was also nominated for the 2004 MWA Edgar Allan Poe Award in the Best Novel Category, which made Kirino the first Japanese writer to be nominated for this major literary award. Her other works are now under way to be translated and published around the world.

Reviews

[Shirlee Chia · Rating 4 out of 5]

明明不是推理小說，但我卻用一種前所未見又非比尋常的速度看完了。還熬了一夜，行屍走肉了一天。

故事圍繞在中年男子薄井的身上。他隨著時間的推進，漸漸地變得越來越淒慘。不得不說，薄井是個非常討人厭的中年男人。是個慾望極重，非常不討喜的主角。他長年和比他小十三歲的美優子搞外遇，還覬覦公司比他小二十歲的朝川。時常把妻子、情人和想要得到的女人拿來做比較。言行舉止和想法都非常的猥瑣噁心。

薄井的人格隨著公司裡發生了事件和薄井的母親去世後變得更差勁。他不止貪色，在公司是個搖擺不定的牆頭草，到最後甚至因為分不到遺產而銷毀母親的遺書。

而把他逼入絕境的除了接二連三的噩運之外，還有他妻子請回來的「解夢師」青峰老師。她大概真的能解夢，但其實就算她不行也不會阻礙故事發展。反正故事裡的每一個人都顯露出他們最糟一面。除了薄井的二兒子翔之外，大家好像都是惡人。

反正到最後薄井他失去所有他一直努力維持和想要的一切。他的末路大概就是孤獨終老吧？

其實，這樣一本全員惡人又太現實的書並不是會讓我一頁接著一頁翻閱的故事。但作者描述薄井婚外情的心理和行為卻讓我有點…好奇？執著？反正我在非常有限的閒暇時光，不惜犧牲睡眠也給她嗑完了。

然後這是第二次讀這個作家的書，果然還是一片的昏暗啊。

[Elisefur · Rating 3 out of 5]

狡猾又猥瑣的薄井，跟長峰這個犀利角色構成了微妙的制衡關係。在世俗的日常之下窺見人性底層的卑劣和狹隘，桐野夏生所描繪的就是那個令人無法安身的世界。

[F Gato · Rating 4 out of 5]

猥琐男这种难以喘息地日子，再来几百页也没问题👌

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read.