Taylor Drew reviewed ジャクソンひとり by 安堂 ホセ
着ていたTシャツに隠されたコードから過激な動画が流出し、職場で嫌疑をかけられたジャクソンは3人の男に出会う。痛快な知恵で生き抜く若者たちの鮮烈なる逆襲劇！ 第59回文藝賞受賞作。
第168回芥川賞候補作！
第59回文藝賞受賞 衝撃のデビュー作！ 東京に暮らすブラックミックスたちが企む鮮やかな逆襲劇
「実際に生きてるってこと。盗用したポルノごっこじゃなくて」 アフリカのどこかと日本のハーフで、昔モデルやってて、ゲイらしい――。 スポーツブランドのスタッフ専用ジムで整体師をするジャクソンについての噂。 ある日、彼のTシャツから偶然QRコードが読み取られ、そこにはブラックミックスの男が裸で磔にされた姿が映されていた。 誰もが一目で男をジャクソンだと判断し、本人が否定しても信じない。 仕方なく独自の調査を始めたジャクソンは、動画の男は自分だと主張する3人の男に出会い――。
On Black life in Japan
3 stars
This book is about race relations in Japan, particularly those of mixed Black Japanese gay men, the one of the prominent characters is a Black international student--from the US if I remember correctly. The synopsis doesn't pretend that it's anything but that, so I expected the commentary that was dispersed throughout the narrative to be there.
What I didn't expect was the way that the narrative/prose flowed between perspectives without warning between half a dozen different people. There are no clear demarcations between perspective shifts and you just really have to be paying attention for when they happen. It's thematically relevant and I really liked the way it was done, but it could be a bit hard to keep track of at times.
I thought that the writing and themes explored within this book were really interesting, but I found the overall story(?) to just be okay. The book is really short, but I'm already forgetting a lot of the key details and nothing in particular beyond the overall style and themes really sticks out in my mind.
I'm really glad this book exists and I'm really glad that I read it. I'm so glad the author is still writing and that his work is being recognized. But I wasn't really blown away by this one unfortunately and it ended up feeling more like a textbook experience than a novel one for me.