The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura Review

The Woman in the Purple Skirt sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t. When she doesn’t, she has a daily routine where she sits on a park bench and eats a snack. But whether she’s working or not, there’s always someone watching her. And, even though she doesn’t know they exist (yet), that someone really wants to be her friend…

Natsuko Imamura’s novel The Woman in the Purple Skirt is alright. It’s not the most compelling of narratives and I feel like Imamura missed out on more heightened drama on the stalker element. But it did enough to keep me turning the pages and ultimately I did want to know what happened next.

Most of the story takes place in a local hotel where the stalker and The Woman in the Purple Skirt work. And here I’ll just mention a peeve I had with this book: Imamura could’ve picked a less clunky nickname for her. She’s always referred to as The Woman in the Purple Skirt - I would’ve preferred either her shorter real name or something snappier like PS (for Purple Skirt).

The story follows PS’s (see how easy it is?) time at the hotel, which isn’t the most exciting of experiences (learning cleaning processes, gossiping about co-workers) but the fairly mundane story is made more intriguing by the sinister framing, told from the perspective of the stalker. I was kept wondering what the stalker planned to do and how unhinged they were - are they harmless or are they completely nutso, in which case who knows what’ll happen?

That said, what does end up happening is underwhelming and I wanted them to do something a bit more dramatic than what they eventually did. So it’s not the most satisfying of endings but the journey there was fine so I didn’t mind that much.

The novel is an interesting look at the Japanese lower classes, showing the less glamorous lifestyles of ordinary Japanese, which doesn’t often get highlighted in pop culture about this country. It’s not the deepest of reads - Imamura observes the loneliness of adult Japanese, in both characters of PS and the stalker, but disappointingly doesn’t explore it any further.

The Woman in the Purple Skirt tells a moderately entertaining tale of contemporary Japanese society that’s well-written but also isn’t that exciting and feels quite superficial. Imamura touches on relevant social problems (the isolation of some modern adults) but chooses instead to focus on what turns out to be a soap opera-esque storyline. It’s an accessible, breezy read but nothing too inspired or memorable.