Underground

The Book in 1 Sentence

I walked in knowing nothing about the terrorist attack on the Japanese subway, and I walked out knowing nothing about the Japanese terrorist attack but that "Salarymen" commute an hour or more to get to Tokyo.

Brief Review

As you know, I just a book by their covers. This one was crazy, but I was intrigued by the tag line of learning more about the Japanese poisonings, knowing nothing about them. So as always, I didn't read the back or anything and just looked at the reviews. This told me that it was going to be good, however, the book relies on something important. You knowing what the hell happened.

Why I Read this book

I thought it was going to give me more information about Japanese history and culture.

In-Depth Review (Favorite Quotes)

Like I said in the beginning, I was expecting something so much more. Let me explain the issue. The book is set up as a presentation of stories from the victims of the events and those that were part of the group when it happened. While these tell incredible stories of humans taking care of each other and a government that fails to react correctly. However, you also get stories about them growing up, their jobs, why they worked there and what they wanted to do previously.

I get what the author was trying to do with this. However, when you have 20+ stories talking about this with only 10 minutes of each story being about the event, it just feels like noise. You add in the fact that there is zero presentation of the group, the why, or even what they did. So I don't have context as to why all of this matters.

There were some interesting parts in the end from people who joined the Alm group and why they did. This was more intriguing because their background was needed to explain why individuals would join a cult. It isn't often that you hear about people who were part of a group of thinkers, they were manipulated into do something horrific, and then they stay in the group to make it better or to better themselves.

Rating

I really wanted to enjoy this book. The first couple of chapters I listened with rapt attention, however by chapter 3, I was being lulled to sleep hearing what was basically the same tragic story. It wasn't until Chapter 9 when I felt that I was really learning something beyond personal stories. Mostly, this book frustrated me due to the lack of a basic forward, preface, or paragraph that gave me a synopsis of the events that took place. I am still unsure of the final details and I read this book to get those. I can appreciate the author trying to give voice to the victims which in most books about events, typically leave out. However, there is still a need to present the basic facts and without them or even a conclusion to the thesis, this book feels incomplete. I am giving this book a 5.

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