Crime fiction fans craving something a little quirky and different in among the vast feast the genre has been offering in recent years, a palate cleanser if you will, may do well to dip into Butter by Asako Yuzuki. A cult bestseller in Japan several years ago, it’s now available for English-speaking readers thanks to the translation of Polly Barton.
Somewhat inspired by a true crime, Butter is a weird and rather wonderful slow-burn psychological thriller about a female gourmand and serial killer. Tabloid journo Rika Machida leads a rather empty existence; late nights at her male-dominated office, ramen noodles in her apartment, occasional sex with a sorta-boyfriend.
But things start changing when Machida secures an interview with notorious killer Manako Kajii, said to have seduced lonely businessmen with her gourmet cooking. Kajii refused all interviews until Machida sent a letter asking about her beef stew recipe. Machida hopes to crack Kajii open via foodie chat, and serving as Kajii’s proxy with home cooking and dining at back-alley teppanyaki and Michelin-starred restaurants, but is she the one being manipulated?
Yuzuki, ably translated by Polly Barton, offers a sensuous, highly original tale where food is at the forefront of an underlying exploration of misogyny, fatphobia, past trauma, and patriarchal society. This doesn’t really fit with the modern Japanese noir or classic crime that has been increasingly translated in recent years, but it’s strangely delicious.
Reviewed by Craig Sisterson
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Asako Yuzuki was born in Tokyo in 1981. She won the All Yomimono Award for New Writers for her story, Forget Me, Not Blue, which appeared in her debut, Shuuten No Anoko. She won the Yamamoto Shūgorō Award in 2015 for Nile Perch No Joshikai.
She has been nominated multiple times for the Naoko Prize, and her novels have been adapted for television, radio and film.
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