[Tokyo Décibels] - Hitonari Tsuji (french translation by Corinne Atlan)
This was the next novel on the library shelf which was published in Japan in 1996 and translated into french in 2005. The decibels the sounds of Tokyo street life drive this story. Arata's job is to measure the decibles in and around certain districts in Tokyo 80-85 decibels and above are considered harmful. Arata is into heavy rock music which he listens to on headphones and wanders around Tokyo seemingly in some sort of daze. His girlfriend Fumi is starting to keep her distance from him and he consoles himself by sleeping with Mariko who makes a living doing telephone sex. Arata is in love with Fumi and Mariko shows him how he can spy on her by installing a listening device in her flat. Arata on his travels bumps into Ikuo an old school friend who was a member of the same student rock group. Ikuo has troubles of his own, he makes a living as a piano tuner as he has perfect pitch, but his marriage to a professional pianist is breaking up and they are fighting over the custody of their child. Ikuo and Arata spend evenings getting drunk together.

Arata enjoys his work and when he discovers the bells of a Japanese temple that briefly out decibel the traffic noise, he makes further studies. He involves Ikuo in his project making maps of the sound patterns in the districts that house one of the temples. He makes a presentation at work and his boss and his team run with the project in an effort to publicise that there are other sounds in the city centre that people can relate to. However Arata loses sight of his project which might have been an anchor for both him and Ikuo. The two men drift again failing to understand their place in city life. Trying to solve their relationship problems and getting themselves further into intrigue and incomprehension, with the sounds of city life intruding into their very being.

The idea of city sounds as background to people struggling to make human connections is a good one, the haze and noise that intrudes; making difficulties, even when the protagonists hold onto the sounds as a way of connecting; either as a way of earning a living or at play in a rock group. The book has been made into a film which does not seem to have had much of a release outside of Japan. I enjoyed the story and the atmosphere of Tokyo city peeped through at times and so 3.5 stars. ( )