This book is an autobiographical progression of sorts, told from the perspective of 5 individuals. The plot is rather simple and straight forward. There are no twists or surprises, so to speak. What makes the book so unnervingly poignant, is the study of the individual characters, their thoughts, their struggles, their perception of the world. The book begins with Toshiko, a 17-year old girl hearing a loud crash from the neighbor’s house. Soon after, she is headed towards her cram school, and runs into the boy who lives next door. After an awkward exchange of greetings, they both go their own ways, and a little later, Toshiko finds that her bike and cell phone were gone. Turned out, the boy next door had killed his mother right before the encounter earlier during the day, and soon after, stole Toshiko’s bike and phone. Not only did he steal them, he also seemed to have called all of Toshiko’s friends from her phone! The murder next door had caused a ripple in the lives of Toshiko and her friends, only they did not know it yet.
As I said before, the book is more of a character study than anything else. The story is just that… a disturbed, teenage boy kills his mother, goes on a run, and four different girls react to the event in peculiar ways that can only be due to something from their own pasts, their relationship with their own parents and their relationship with each other.
One thing that really hit home is how some parents tend to treat their children as some commodities. They think they are thinking of the future of their children, and I think they really do believe that, which just makes it so much worse! The pressure of having to go to a prestigious private school, even if that meant for a child to have to commute all alone to a school farther away from home, or after being accepted to a prestigious school, showing off the child as if the child is some precious property… they sound innocent enough, but the pressure of the parents’ expectations can be dangerous too. Not every child reacts to certain events the same way, and a lot of the times parents fail to understand that. They get so caught up in how they want their children to be, trying to live life through their children’s, that they forget the children have their own lives to live. They have their own personalities, their own likes and dislikes and problems, and eventually their own opinions on matters. Parents do not own their children, certainly not after they are old enough to walk and talk and make decisions on their own. But sadly, too many parents fail to recognize that.
Most of the times, it’s a temporary thing. Eventually children grow up and learn to get their own way anyway. But Real World paints another reality. The reality of those families where things go wrong. Possessiveness turns into jealousy, and that turns into something else altogether. This may sound extreme, but unfortunately, it happens. Teenagers commit suicide, or kill, or both. It is not just a Japanese things, but so relevant in the Western world as well! All one has to do is read the news to know the reality that Natsuo Kirino attempted (quite successfully) to paint in Real World.
I absolutely loved this book. Once again, just like Out, Real World is also not a book for everybody. One needs to be just a little into a more twisted version of this otherwise placid world to really appreciate the work of Natsuo Kirino, Real World included.
Title: Real World
Author: Natsuo Kirino, Philip Gabriel (Translator)
Publisher: Knoph, July 15, 2008.Format: Hardcover, 208 pages.
Genre: Literary Fiction, Japanese, Coming of Age, Crime
Source: University of Denver Library