"Concerto for a Man with a Broken Neck": A masterpiece of Kotaro Isaka's virtuosity

It is not uncommon for independent short stories to be pieced together into full-length novels, but works like Kotaro Isaka's "Concerto for a Man with a Broken Neck" that each piece brings a new reading experience to readers are very rare. Although this book is a collection of short stories written by the author for many magazines, after rearrangement and rewriting, the stories are cleverly connected, one story closely follows the other, and the beginning and end echo each other, which is very exciting.

"Concerto for the Man with a Broken Neck" is definitely a masterpiece of Kotaro Isaka's work. It is seven independent short stories with subtle connections. Each story uses different novel techniques and has a different concept. The reading process is full of surprises and makes you feel excited. People were amazed. These seven novels form a concerto that echoes endlessly. No wonder the author said it is like a mysterious handicraft.

The title of the book is "Concerto for the Man with the Broken Neck" and it opens with "Periphery of the Man with the Broken Neck". The man with the Broken Neck is obviously the protagonist, but the story has always revolved around a couple who suspected that the man with the Broken Neck lived next door. A cowardly man who was forced to be a stand-in because he looked similar to a man with a broken neck, and a teenager who was bullied. The man with the broken neck is profiled based on the surrounding characters, and the protagonist finally appears in an unexpected way, which surprises the readers. There are many hidden threads arranged throughout the novel, and the last sentence is the highlight. A gentle pull pulls the scattered clues together tightly like a belt.

The following "The Story of Taking the Blame" tells the story of a man who had just killed his enemy by mistake and met the detective. After he confessed to the detective, the incident not only developed unexpectedly, but also played with the distortion of time and space, leading to the appearance of a man with a broken neck. The unknown side.

From the story of a man with a broken neck to a romantic love story, the main characters of "My Ship" are the suspicious couple who appear in the first chapter, and the detective who investigates the whereabouts of the heroine's first love turns out to be the most popular character written by Kotaro Isaka ── Kurosawa in "Lush Life". Because Kurosawa, who is a thief on the job and a detective on the side, is very popular among readers, he appears in Isaka's novels from time to time. In this book, Kurosawa runs through four novels one after another. He deciphers the secrets of love in "My Boat", understands the hand of God in "Full of Humanity", battles wits with the villains who take advantage of him in "Escape from Monday", and in "The Counselor's Story" Involves supernatural events.

"Full of Humanity" uses the story of a stag beetle to retell the bullying incident, and then brings out the way God exists, discussing justice and divine punishment. The metaphor is clever, pleasing to the heart, and full of positive energy. "Escape from Monday" has a wonderful layout. Not only did Kurosawa win the battle, but Isaka also won the readers over. This article reads very much like the old work "Lush Life", and the narrative trick once again makes the readers deceived and delighted. "The Consultant's Story" is a "ghost story" novel that Isaka was invited to write. It uses a curse legend to bring out the bizarre recovery story and then develops it into a supernatural event. Although there is no breathtaking plot, it still retains Isaka's black humor.

The man with the broken neck appears again in the last article "Story of Friendship". This article was inspired by Raymond Queneau's "Exercises in Style". It plays a lot of word games in the novel and evolves from "story network" to "story network". The "expanded outline" then evolved into the "expanded outline (name omitted, expressed by gender + English letters)", and then supplemented by "supplementary information" and various explanations. The timing is jumpy and the narrative is ever-changing, turning an ordinary person into a The story of a friendship has evolved into a wonderful and fun novel. I originally thought that the novel would end with the friendship ending, but I didn’t expect that the surprise was left until the end, and it was full of warmth when I read it.

The biggest feature of Kotaro Isaka's novels is that there are foreshadowings everywhere. No matter how unimportant the characters or dialogues in the cutscenes are, they have the opportunity to become important clues and bring surprises in reading. His novels always gently inject positive energy into readers, talk about serious issues in a light-hearted way, and guide readers to think about the root causes of problems in simple and profound ways. His writing skills are superb, and "Concerto for a Man with a Broken Neck" fully demonstrates his diverse novel writing skills and should not be missed.

Book title: "Concerto for the Man with a Broken Neck"

Author: Kotaro Isaka

Translator: Gao Zhancan

Published by: Crown Culture Publishing Co., Ltd.

Date November 2015

Book purchase link: https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010693293

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