Seicho Matsumoto’s A Quiet Place revolves around a man so obsessed with his job that he doesn’t notice his wife is having an affair. It is only after her sudden death that he begins to unravel the truth about her all while unable to see his own truth. Asai is a functionary in the Department of Agriculture, and a good one. However he pursues his work with a single minded fashion, always putting his job and money first. His second, younger wife shows little interest in him, either sexually or otherwise and Asai is fine with that. It gives him time to follow his true passion, his job. At first his wife’s death doesn’t seem to bother him, he’s sad and cries, but it seems more about what he lost than who. As he starts to pull at strings that don’t tie together quite right regarding where and how his wife died he begins to become obsessed with finding out who she was having an affair with and reclaiming some sense of honor after his wife has cheated on him.
The book’s twists and turns are utterly predictable, but only in the sense that from the start Asai is on course for an inevitable fall. The only question is how he will get there and whether you’ll enjoy the ride. I did. Asai is a rather unpleasant and delusional fellow. He tends to see people only for how they can help him advance his career and has no passion other than his work. It’s something we all can fall prey to at moments in our life and Matsumoto does an excellent job of showing us Asai’s blinders and single mindedness.
The book also has fun with irony. Asai is extremely concerned about keeping his job and his money. Those two things keep being a major source of conflict later in the book as Asai begins to realize that his personal well being needs to come ahead of work. If he’d had an ounce of that clarity before the book starts, he might not have ended up in the situation he’s at in the end. Although at the start he seems a relatively benign character, by the end he’s shown to be not only a fool but also contemptible for his inability for any understanding of people other than himself.
The title, A Quiet Place, refers to the spot Asai finally confronts his wife’s lover, but also seems to refer to Asai himself. A quiet unassuming man forced to confront the truth about himself. The book is not a mystery/detective story in the traditional sense, but more of a suspenseful thriller. While the not a typical whodunnit, it’s main character has a pull that will keep you turning pages.
This book is part of the Newberry Library’s “Exploring the East Asian Mystery” class. It looks at a new mystery each week and I’ll be posting reviews of the books read. I highly recommend checking out their Adult Education Seminars for some interesting look at various facets of Chicago’s past as well as classes looking at various books as mentioned above. Previously in person, they are currently via Zoom opening up the radius of who can take part.
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