Jackson Alone

Ando tackles colorism in Japanese society in his bold but unfocused debut thriller. Jackson, a gay, half-Black massage therapist at the offices of a Tokyo athletic brand, courts controversy at work one afternoon when his colleagues discover that his shirt, whose origins he can’t recall, has a QR code embedded in its design. The code links to a violent pornographic video that appears to feature Jackson, though he denies it’s him and has no memory of the act. After three other gay, half-Black Japanese men—drag queen Jerin, porn star Ikiru, and aspiring reality show contestant X—get tangled in the fallout from the video, all four hatch a plot to track down their assailant and uncover the circumstances around the video’s creation. Along the way, the men begin to switch places with one another to exact petty revenge against dismissive romantic partners and slimy colleagues. Ando fumbles his strong premise with some preposterous deus ex machina in the novel’s home stretch, and his core cast remain little more than ciphers. Still, it’s hard not to admire the author’s passionate rebuke of Japanese conformity or his tender depiction of queer camaraderie. There’s sufficient evidence on offer here to suggest that Ando is a writer worth keeping tabs on. (Jan.)