The Japanese title of this 1990 novel is Tenjo no Ao, which means “heavenly blue.” The American translator, Edward Putzar, opted for No Reason for Murder—which sounds like a hardboiled detective novel. Not that I’m complaining; after all, it’s the English title that initially caught my attention. I doubt that I would have given a second glance at a book called Heavenly Blue. Plus, the author herself did not object (per the translator).
The plot concerns two people. Yukiko Hata is a single, thirty-eight year old seamstress living in a house on the Miura Peninsula of Japan. One day she meets a man named Fujio who seems to be interested in the morning glories that grow in her garden (the book’s Japanese title refers to this type of flower). A relationship, mostly platonic, develops.
But we soon learn that there is something about Fujio that is not right. He is unemployed and lives at home with his parents, his sister and his sister’s husband, none of whom know how he spends most of his free time. A smooth-talking liar and manipulator, Fujio cruises the area for girls, and time after time he manages to lure them into his car. Some of these encounters result in mere flings, but others turn violent. Before long, Fujio develops into a rapist and serial murderer.
And yet all the while one has the sense that Yukiko is not a potential target. In fact she is for Fujio an almost stabilizing influence, but not enough to keep him from pursuing his ghoulish lifestyle. A Christian of the solitary type, Yukiko is an interesting blend of naiveté and profundity. Things that should be obvious she doesn’t see, but at the same time she is exceedingly wise. Moreover, while she is certainly not promiscuous, she is not prudish either. The novel includes a love scene between her and the murderer, the tenderness of which struck me as remarkable. It is strange that such a warm exchange should involve a monster like Fujio. But I think that was the point: the only thing good about Fujio—is Yukiko. And this theme plays out all the way to the end.
I don’t know what the author did in terms of research, but her handling of the serial murderer indicates that she possessed all the instincts and intuitions of an FBI profiler. But she was also an artist. This novel is not just a Japanese variant of The Silence of the Lambs. I would compare it to the work of Walker Percy, with touches of No Country for Old Men.
Potential readers should know beforehand that there are a number of defects throughout No Reason for Murder: missing words, needless words, or sentences that do not make sense. I suspect a translation and/or editing problem. I will not fault the translator too much, however, because his job overall kept Sono’s work (a lengthy work, by the way) sufficiently readable and intact. For that I am grateful.
Photo from amazon.com
