From the Editors

This book begins when freelance writer Yuki's big brother is found dead and decomposing in his apartment room, having starved himself to death.
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The word "outlet" has lots of definitions. "An opening or vent permitting escape or release" for example, or "a means for release or expression of emotion, creative energy, etc." You can have an electrical outlet, an outlet for your frustrations, a sexual outlet, an outlet mall...the list goes on.

The multifaceted meanings of the title of Randy Taguchi's "Outlet" are a clue to the multilayered story within its pages. Following Yuki Asakura after the strange, unexplained death of her brother, the novel twists and turns through deeper layers of Yuki's psyche as she tries to figure out what happened to Taka and why she doesn't seem to care more about it.

Yuki's sexual appetite, her sudden ability to smell death in the air, her magnetic appeal to almost everyone she's known, her history with her former teacher/therapist/lover as well as her current lovers all add extra pieces to the puzzle of Taka's death. He died lying down - he just seemed to run out of energy, after plugging a vacuum cleaner into an electrical outlet. Yuki seems to give and receive a charge from her multiple lovers. How does it all come together?

Surreal and unexpected and strangely distant, "Outlet" is a story about death, ghosts, strange odors, sex, shamanism, memories, and the connections that form between people. It definitely got to me in unexpected ways - an impressive surprise!

Ineresting psychological drama.
Randy Taguchi, Outlet (Vertical, 2000)

Electricity is one of the main concerns of the modern world, whether one is generating it, using it, trying to conserve it, or what have you. It's rather odd, then, that I've never encountered a novel that uses electricity as such a central motif as Outlet, Randy Taguchi's flawed, yet compelling, first novel. Flawed because it's got some typical first-novel problems. Compelling because, well, it's compelling. I'll explain that bit later.

The novel opens with the death of Taka Asakura, who we initially perceive as a no-good roustabout through the eyes of his similarly no-good father and his sister, Yuki, a financial writer with a secret--she's also a sex addict. Taka's death was somewhat mysterious; he simply wasted away, and Yuki wants to find out what brought him to the point where he simply couldn't be bothered to live anymore. As she gets closer to understanding what it was that drove Taka to suicide, Yuki, forced into contact with people from her past, must also confront her own demons.

Much of what the novel lacks is in its pacing, which is a pretty common malady among first novels; Taguchi got famous as a blogger, and oftentimes the novel feels like a series of blog entries, but with plot and characters. The pacing problems get better as the novel goes along, though, and Taguchi gets past the setup stage and into the real meat of the novel--Yuki's own problems and the measures to which she must go to solve them. There are a few overly convenient bits involved in this to get us farther along, but nothing unforgivable or too overt.

On the other hand, these characters are well worth getting to know. Yuki is an exceptionally well-developed character, and those she comes into contact with multiple times through the novel are also well-drawn and complex. The mysteries she tries to unravel have less to do with the things you'd find in conventional mysteries; this is a psychological novel more than it is a mystery, and the puzzles she has to solve are more of the emotional variety. I suspect that those who can identify with Yuki's (or Taka's) neuroses will find this book much more fulfilling than those who don't. Is that you? Take a chance on this one and find out. *** ½

The Worst Book I Have Ever Read
This book is a wasteland. The characters are all flat, and stupid. Most of them are the same person. Analogies with technology that were meant to make the book seem modern and edgy only show just how poor the author's understanding of technology really is. The conclusion is a pile of puerile, self-congratulatory nonsense.

Every other page either has the word 'plug,' 'outlet,' or depicts our protagonist having sex. Guess what? "PLUG" and "OUTLET" are Taguchi's idea of a clever reinterpretation of SEX. (spoilers!) Our main character is a woman, thus OUTLET. Good job, there. Very deep.

They ought to call her "Ozymandius" Taguchi, because when I look upon her works, I despair.

what a stinker
wow, this book was a stinker. it's been a long time since i've read a book that so drearily insisted on explaining, ad nauseum, every last thought the author has. she might as well have given us a manual. at least it might have had pictures.

the characters are flat and lifeless (no doubt they ran away as soon as they discovered that the author wasn't going to let them speak). the plot wants to be a philosophical with a macabre twist when it grows up, but it has sooo much growing up to do. at the end, the book devolves (if such a thing is possible) into a quasi-poetic slush of self-congratulatory drivel, which, if nothing else, leaves the reader free to skim those last 15 pages and, with relief, close the book and throw it in the resell pile.

if you want good, weird japanese fiction, go read haruki murakami or banana yoshimoto. don't waste your time on this one.

More than a mere Ghost story
When I bought this book, I expected to be entertained by another good Japanese tale of ghosts and spirits.
However Outlet is much more than that.
Yuki, the main character is a young woman who lives her life and sexuality as a man: she is emotionally detached and is not shy about living a full sex life.She comes from a very dysfunctional family, her father is a drunk, her mother is abused and her brother is just plain strange.The latter dies of self starvation, and when Yuki visits his appartment she smells the smell of death.She also sees his ghost, but that ghost is there to give her amazing revelations concerning her own nature.
This is an interesting and entertaining book, even for skeptic readers like me .

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