Hikikomori and the Rental Sister

September 10, 2012
Hikikomori, Backhaus explains in his implausible debut, is the Japanese term for withdrawn, an experience apparently more common than Silke Tessler realizes when she goes looking for help for her husband, Thomas, who shut himself up in a room three years earlier and has barely been outside of it since. Though the traditional ”rental sister” concept—evidently an antidote for a hikikomori—remains vague, in this novel it means that Silke hires a beautiful 22-year-old Japanese girl to bring Thomas back into the world. Lucky for him, oral sex and illicit nights together hiding from Silke work wonders with even the most reclusive. While the intellectual underpinning of the book could be said to pose interesting questions about guilt, love, and renewal, more often than not it reads like an adolescent fantasy in which Thomas, in order to save himself and his marriage, must subject himself to Megumi’s “immense” sexual appetite; what could be better than a wife-approved tryst with a publicly demure but privately voracious young woman who wants nothing in return? Blatant metaphors of winter, spring, and a spiritually cleansing trip to the hot springs don’t buoy the disagreeable proceedings. Agent: David Marshall, Marshall Rights.

May 15, 2013

Following the accidental death of his son, Thomas Tessler has withdrawn from the world, only leaving his room for nocturnal visits to the convenience store near the Manhattan apartment he shares with his wife, Silke. Thomas has become hikikomori, embodying a social phenomenon in Japan whereby young people, mostly young men, withdraw from society. Near despair after three years of trying to help him, Silke recognizes she can't and hires a "rental sister." Acting as a counselor of sorts, Japanese immigrant Megumi is uniquely qualified because her own brother also was hikikomori, and she is battling her own sense of loss. Speaking through Thomas's closed door, Megumi slowly gains his confidence by sharing stories from her own life, and they begin to talk. Without intending to do so, they develop a deeply intimate and sexual relationship that ultimately enables both of them to reenter their real lives. Stephen Bowlby's use of an unemotional voice for narrator Thomas captures the tone of this quirky, spare story of loneliness, grief, and love. Appropriately, he changes to a happier, Japanese-tinged voice for Megumi. With this debut, Backhaus proves he is an author to watch. VERDICT Recommended. ["This debut has a claustrophobic feel owing to its subject matter, but Backhaus provides a light at the end of the tunnel and some hope for his tormented characters," read the review of the Algonquin hc, LJ 2/1/13.--Ed.]--Judy Murray, Monroe Cty. Lib. Syst., MI

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