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Sat 08 Aug 2007Trauma in Tokyo A powerful novel set among the misery of
post-war Japan
Fiction:David Peace is contemporary literature's most compelling chronicler of defeat. In a series of corrosively affecting novels, he has examined the interiors of various English traumas, from the Yorkshire Ripper case (The Red Riding Quartet) to the miners' strike (GB84) to Brian Clough's stint as manager of Leeds (The Damned United), writes Keith Ridgway.
As a body of work, it has a distinctive style - a kind of reportage-of- consciousness - and a steady layering of detail. It feels organic, permeated by its subjects, oozing masculinity and fear. You can smell a David Peace novel. Tokyo Year Zero stinks. It's a remarkable book.
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