Desperately Seeking Translator Dept.
Add this to your list of books to seek out and bring into English: Sailor Suit and Machine Gun, super-prolific Japanese author Jirō Akagawa's satirical crossbreed of teen drama and yakuza violence. I finally bumped into a copy ($1 at Book-Off, where else?), and apart from a translation it could also use a clever marketing plan in the U.S. After the recent wave of Nordic crime drama (girls with dragon tattoos and the like), how about a similar wave of stuff from Japan, albeit with a comedic bent? They've foisted worse stuff off on us lately.
… and that cover art is a joy to behold.
Although, now that I think about it, the butterfly should be on the gunsight.
(Anyone who gets that in-joke receives a free bottle of Kewpie mayo.)
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