Changes

|title=Tokyo Year Zero

|author=David Peace

|genre=Crime

|summary=The story of a serial killer hunt in post-WW2 Tokyo is distinctive enough without the unique style. You might find the latter swamps the former.

|rating=3.5

|buy=Maybe

|borrow=Maybe

|pages=400

|publisher=Faber and Faber

|date=September 2008

|isbn=978-0571231997

}}

To begin with - no, the style of this book never changes from the first pages. And guessing you don't have those or any other pages right in front of you at this moment, here goes. Probably three quarters of paragraphs are actually less than a line in length. There is a great habit of splitting sentences between paragraphs, however, especially when it comes to then repeating those sentences, or bits of them, or using onomatopoeic phrases and noises on a loop to near-frustrating effect. There are also, in a sense, two narrative voice-overs, one in italics, the other not - these also loop. There is an exceptionally noticeable poetic result from all this, however - and therefore the autopsy scene in this book is certainly distinctive (still gory, but unique at the same time).

It's an interesting book, for sure, but one I can't enthuse over. Peace certainly has a cult following, so many will leap at this volume whatever I say. I have to thank the publishers for sending a sample to the Bookbag to review - it certainly is a memorable volume, in a divisive style.

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