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Hikikomori, Backhaus explains in his implausible debut, is the Japanese term for withdrawn, an experience apparently more common than Silke Tessler realizes when she goes looking for help for her husband, Thomas, who shut himself up in a room three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.

February 1, 2013

In Japan, hikikomori refers to a disturbing social phenomenon in which troubled young men become recluses, hiding in their childhood bedrooms and avoiding contact with even their own families. Thomas Tessler is an American hikikomori. Thomas has a reason for his severe depression. His little son was hit by a car three years ago, and he feels responsible for the boy's death. Since then, the bereaved man has locked himself in a room in the Manhattan apartment he still shares with his wife, Silke. In desperation, Silke finds a "rental sister" named Megumi at a Japanese shop, hoping that she can help Thomas. (Families of Japanese hikikomori sometimes seek the help of specially trained young women to work with their troubled sons.) Megumi gradually forms a relationship with Thomas that is much more than sisterly. VERDICT 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.--Leslie Patterson, Brown Univ. Libs., MA

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