The original title of this book was People Who Eat Darkness. The subtitle was added for American audiences.
What does that say about us? While you are thinking about that, I’ll fill you
in on this oddly engaging book.
This is the “true crime” story about a 21-year-old British
former flight attendant, Lucy Blackman (pictured), who moved to Tokyo at the invitation of
a friend. Her friend assured her that she could make gobs of money working as a "hostess" in the Roppongi entertainment district clubs. Unfortunately, Lucy hooked up with
a serial sex offender and ended up drugged, dismembered and buried in a cave.
Interestingly, that was sort of the least interesting part of the book.
What kept me reading was author Richard Lloyd Parry’s exposé
of the Japanese culture, and his keen observations on how Lucy’s disappearance
and death so drastically affected each member of her family.
To begin with, I found it uncomfortably enthralling that a
21-year-old girl would move to Tokyo to take a job literally, and only, flirting with and flattering
men – a 21st century Geisha. Western women are highly valued by the
wealthy Japanese businessmen who frequent the Roppongi clubs. For some reason
it would seem less disturbing if they were prostitutes.
And then there’s the Japanese criminal justice system, which
even Parry (pictured), who was the Tokyo bureau chief for the London Times for 10 years could not explain. Tokyo consistently
ranks among the world's safest large cities. But as Parry pointed out, “low
crime rates says more about Japanese culture than about police efficiency.” And
in fact, it seemed that the police were so inexperienced at dealing with
abduction and murder that they just really didn’t know what to do. So
they didn’t do much of anything.
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