Normally after reading a book I’m going to review I flick through it first to remind myself of some of the points I wanted to make and note down worthwhile details. But as my consistent feelings while reading this novel were of confusion and boredom, I think it’ll be more honest, and hopefully more entertaining, to not look back at the book to refresh myself of the story and key plot points but try to do it from memory.
So The Rope Artist is about someone being killed by someone else. They’re both into bondage fetish, hence the ropes. A detective is trying to distract from the suspected murderer because he fancies her or something. But he’s incompetent and he’s being used anyway. Characters die, other characters who seem to be dead aren’t, there’s lots of stuff on bondage, and that’s that.
Fuminori Nakamura isn’t a terrible writer but he’s often a very poor storyteller and nowhere is that more apparent than in The Rope Artist. He’s trying to pull off a labyrinthine bait and switch murder mystery spanning decades and it’s way beyond his abilities. Forget mysterious, the story is utterly incomprehensible at the best of times. I never had any idea what was happening or why. There’s a narrator change halfway through but, considering both characters sound the same, it’s almost unnoticeable.
Characters are basically just names as they’re indistinguishable - they have no personalities (the men are douches, the women cry, and they all have gross sex together) and their motivations are the real mystery rather than finding out whoever killed whoever else (as if anyone cares). This is a big part of what makes following the story near impossible. I think he’s going for a noir story with the detective, the murder, the seedy underworld, etc. but it just comes off as an unpleasant and boring failure.
I would recommend The Thief if you’re interested in reading the only half-decent novel Fuminori Nakamura’s written, but definitely don’t bother with the instantly forgettable trash that is The Rope Fartist.
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