Tokio, 26 de enero de 1948. Un hombre entra en una sucursal del banco Teikoku y dice ser el médico municipal encargado de vacunar al personal tras una epidemia de disentería. Poco después, doce personas mueren envenenadas y el asesino desaparece con unos billetes en el bolsillo.

Bajo la nieve helada que cae sobre la ciudad ocupada por las fuerzas estadounidenses, después de la guerra pero en una noche atemporal, un escritor corre por el barro cargando su libro no concluido, la crónica aún incompleta de aquella masacre sin sentido y sin resolver. Encuentra refugio y respuestas en la oscuridad de un templo en ruinas: un ritual arcano evoca las sombras de los testigos del crimen, cada uno con su propio fragmento de verdad y sus propios secretos. A la luz vacilante de doce velas, desfilan policías y delincuentes, chivos expiatorios y ocultistas, agentes secretos e informantes, muertos que no encuentran descanso y vivos que quieren estar muertos. Guiado por la voz de las sombras, el escritor rastrea los hechos a través de informes oficiales y confidenciales, blasfemias y rezos, reportajes y canciones, confesiones lúcidas y delirios alucinados, diarios privados y cuentos de hadas, enfrentándose a un escurridizo, multifacético, siempre contradictorio verdad.

Con el segundo capítulo de la Trilogía de Tokio, David Peace construye su novela más compleja. La ciudad ocupada de Tokio es un hipnótico juego de espejos, una sesión de espiritismo en la que los difuntos se manifiestan en un coro de voces discordantes y la disección de una noticia se convierte en una oportunidad para cuestionar el concepto mismo de verdad, cambiante y esquiva como todo lo humano.

Essentially, a failure. In Occupied City, David Peace allows form to overwhelm content to the point the story becomes lost and uninteresting. Peace is not as daring and innovative as he seems to imagine; otherwise, he would have brought more control to this novel. I have seen this before in genre writers who simply can't let an initial insight go--it was common in science fiction writers in the late 1960s and 1970s. The obsession with an elliptical form to the point of indifference. I can see how this might appeal to first year graduate students in a literature program who have just discovered modern and post-modern challenges. But it really is imitative. And the tone is monotonous. ( )

This book uses twelve different viewpoints to tell the story of the Teikoku Bank Massacre, which took place on 26 January 1948 in Tokyo. A man posing as a public health official played on fears of dysentery outbreaks to persuade 16 bank employees to drink poison. Of the 16 employees, 12 died, and the fake health official took advantage of their situation to steal money from the bank.

The story is told using the framing device of a ghost-story-telling session with “you” (the author) in a dark room lit only by 12 candles, while a medium introduces each of the different voices. As each story ends, another candle is blown out. Peace is known for this type of experimental storytelling, and he succeeds admirably in using this device to build a chilling atmosphere. I also like that he chose to shine the spotlight on a lesser-known event and a time and place that most people in the West don’t think of: post-WW2 Japan. Reading this makes me want to read more about the Pacific theatre in the war and about the country’s history after the war.

I must confess that I made it only to the eighth or ninth candle before I had to stop; not because the story was so scary, but because I felt I’d absorbed enough of the atmosphere and had sufficient viewpoints to appreciate the story. Peace is about the most experimental writer I read, and reading his work is always an interesting challenge, even if I don’t finish.

I would recommend this if you like challenge in your reading or want to read a story about post-war Japan. ( )

This book is written in a really interesting and innovative way. A really good read for a book group there is a lot to discuss. ( )

mmm, well what to say? I enjoyed Tokyo Year Zero a great deal - the experimentation with form helped add to the feeling of brooding and collapse that underpinned the whole story. With this one though, I thought the experimentation undermined the atmosphere. Whilst I appreciate the attempt to recreate the style of Rashomon, and understand that every character would have a different perspective, none the less I couldn't work out the point of some of the characters at all. The Russian who suddenly appears as Voice Seven. The unnamed boss - the same boss as from Tokyo Year Zero? It seemed so - all of these took me on not particularly rewarding flights of speculation.

And in the bridge sections between voices it seems as though Peace himself - if he is the writer referred to and presumably he is - seems to despair himself of properly tying the whole thing together

It held my attention - but ultimately left me unsatisfied. But a worthy attempt. ( )