Review by New York Times Review
The gasp-with-horror scene that opens this perfectly titled book begins oh so innocently: a new father, awake in the middle of the night, gazes at his 4-month-old daughter, who lies asleep in her crib tucked beneath a pink blanket. But wait, what's that in Dad's hand? "Gripping the ice pick lightly to minimize trembling, he placed the point of it next to the baby's cheek." The reader's palpitations continue well into this dense little novel, as the father, Kawashima Masayuki, hits upon a way of relieving his creeping desire to hurt the baby: "There's only one way to overcome the fear: you've got to stab someone else with an ice pick." But that strategy goes awry - the prostitute he selects as his victim is at least as disturbed as Kawashima, and their combined psychopathologies keep getting in the way. In the course of their sadistic dance with death, their histories as victims of child abuse are revealed. Murakami has a known predilection for shock, as in his "Coin Locker Babies" or "In the Miso Soup," but in "Piercing" there is little else besides. The few other characters, among them Kawashima's wife, fade away as the story staggers through Tokyo from blood pool to blood pool. Depending on your fortitude, Murakami's penetrating forays into the minds of abused children may make the horror worth getting through, or may not.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 27, 2009]
Review by Booklist Review
Kawashima survived a hideously abusive childhood and, as isn't unusual in such cases, bears the scars. Voices in his head, accompanied by garish images, urge him to re-create his stabbing, when a teenager, of the stripper who was his brutal mother. Because only voices and images from the external world could neutralize those from inside, Kawashima's greatest fear is not of death but of blindness and deafness. When fantasies of stabbing his infant daughter as she sleeps in her crib start to dominate his consciousness, he lies to his unsuspecting wife, takes a hotel room, and meticulously plots to murder an S&M prostitute--who is petite, so he can more easily overcome her. Certainly not for the squeamish or faint-hearted, Piercing blends a cold-blooded true-crime ambience and unexpected, almost antic humor as best-laid plans go horribly awry when an equally scarred (she's a compulsive cutter) abuse survivor turned S&M prostitute enters the action. Oddly and thoroughly compelling as well as chilling, and neither black comedy nor horror, this is a strangely entertaining novel. --Whitney Scott Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this short, tense and brutally eloquent thriller from Japanese author Murakami (In the Miso Soup), Kawashima Masayuki, a young urban professional, faces the terrible fear he will stab his baby daughter, Rie, just as he once stabbed the stripper he lived with when he was 19. He decides killing a young prostitute will alleviate the building pressure inside him and protect both Rie and his sweet wife, Yoko. He plans everything meticulously, but what he doesn't bargain for is that his intended victim, Sanada Chiaki, an s&m worker, is as disturbed as he is. During their appointment, Chiaki experiences a "Nightmare" episode that results in a twisted game of cat-and-mouse. Murakami doesn't waste a word or a movement in this near-haiku of a tale that's breathless with anxiety and fraught with pain. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Murakami (Almost Transparent Blue) offers a twisted psycho-thriller that examines child abuse, obsession, and power in postmodern Japan. Kawashima Masayuki is a husband and father who hears voices in his head telling him to stab soft flesh with an ice pick. When his wife almost catches him touching his baby's face with an ice pick, Kawashima decides to go on sabbatical and fulfill his psychopathic desire to stab a woman in her stomach. For that purpose, he arranges to hire a prostitute, whose Achilles heel he also intends to cut. Sanada Chiaki, the prostitute who arrives, is a woman haunted by her sexually abusive father and obsessed with self-mutilation, suicidal thoughts, and a passion for piercing her own body. When these two damaged people come together, twisted plans and imaginary voices clash, and awful visions are brought to light. This dark, sexually charged, and thrilling short novel is a strong academic collection choice.-Ronald Samul, New London, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Two strangers scarred by childhood abuse seek release and relief in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse: the latest postcard from the edge by noir-ish Japanese novelist and filmmaker Murakami (In the Miso Soup, 2004, etc.). Deceptively mild-mannered graphic designer Kawashima would like nothing more than to lay his demons to rest. Beaten by his mother from a young age and placed in a group home, he seems to have found happiness at last with wife Yoko and infant daughter Rie. Alas, their idyll is short-lived; he fights "night terrors" and the overwhelming urge to skewer Rie with an ice pick as she sleeps. Not that his fascination with ice picks is anything new: Kawashima once impaled a stripper-cum-lover who was old enough to be his mother. Fueled by memories of Basic Instinct and his peers at the group home, he hatches a plan to check into a downtown Tokyo hotel and hire a prostitute to torture and murder. After a trial run with a masseuse, he books his accommodations and the services of a young S&M club worker. When Chiaki arrives, she turns out to have her own history of molestation by her father and less-than-wholesome attachments to the drug Halcion, nipple rings and self-mutilation. Promptly stabbing herself in the thigh, Chiaki misconstrues Kawashima's interest in her and further complicates their grisly pas de deux. Not only is she a "kindred spirit" in suffering, but she also shares his high threshold for pain, boundless rage and uncontrollable flashbacks. The running commentary about the powerlessness of children and the interconnectedness of sex and violence merely mutes the vividness of the characters' perceptions. Eventually runs out of steam. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
