In the newsroom of North Kanto Times in Hideo Yokoyama’s Seventeen, decisions that affect life far beyond that of the newsroom are made daily, as in any other newspaper office in the world. Kazumasa Yuuki, a reporter for the regional daily, finds himself at the centre of a crossfire everyday in his workplace, despite the languid Maebashi city and its slow news cycles. But a day in 1985 proves to be more eventful than the rest.
It serves him a challenge he could not have foreseen — nor is he entirely equipped to deal with it.
A Japan Air Lines flight with 524 people on board crashes into Mount Osutaka in the remote Gunma prefecture (a fictionalisation of the real-life tragedy from 1985 involving Japan Airlines Flight 123, which crashed into Mount Takamagahara, killing the same number of people). “Biggest-ever crash involving a single plane”, roars an announcer in the office.
Life’s riddles
But the newsroom is no place for emotions — facts must be mined, information gathered, and copy sent to press. Within seconds, frenzied shouts echo around the office: “Get in touch with Haneda airport!” “Call Japan Air Lines!” “Get the passenger list!” No sooner has Yuuki got the chance to take in the fact that a crew larger than the staff of North Kanto Times may have been blown to smithereens, he is appointed the desk chief for the story. “And that meant telling other people what to do,” he thinks with dread.
Before the crash made Yuuki’s plans go haywire, he was all set to climb a rock face — Tsuitate — on the same range as Mount Osutaka. The trek, with colleague and mountaineer Kyoichiro Anzai, was scheduled on the very night of the crash. “I climb up to step down,” Anzai had told him, recounting an age-old riddle which will resonate for the rest of Yuuki’s life.
The Tsuitate rock face, known as Devil’s Mountain, has claimed the lives of over 700 people who have tried to scale it. For Yuuki, the proposed climb is an attempt at daredevilry. Then the crash chains Yuuki to the desk, and the plan has to be cancelled.
S eventeen is split over two timelines: 1985, when Yuuki is tasked with managing the newsroom as the accident and its ramifications play themselves out; and 2002, when he takes a second shot at climbing the Tsuitate rock face. But in the course of the intervening 17 years, the adventure has metamorphosed into a quest for salvation. The crash had started a process of unravelling in his mind. Now he must seek out the meaning of life in the face of foreseeable death as he stares up the rock face.
Psychological insights
Yokoyama made his name outside Japan with his sixth novel, Six Four, which was the first to be translated into English. The Guardian called it a “guide book to Japan”, lauding it for bringing the Far East country to the global North. If we were to relieve Yokoyama’s work of the burden of speaking for the mores and literature of Japan, both Six Four and Seventeen are potent crime thrillers at their core. They may not be of the page-turning, breakneck, thrill-a-minute Stieg Larsson kind, but they bring back the psychological motivations in the works of, say, John le Carré.
Yokoyama was an investigative reporter with a local newspaper in the Gunma prefecture at the time of the crash. Much like his protagonist, he had to objectively relay the horrors as mangled bodies lay scattered around him. He began writing Seventeen in 2002 and admits in the preface that he was continually haunted by the events of the day. Writing the novel must have been cathartic for Yokoyama. But he doesn’t linger too much on the events as he fictionalises them.
In Louise Heal Kawai’s almost flawless translation, Seventeen bristles with details. There isn’t too much by way of a plot: Seventeen is chiefly driven by its characters — its many, many characters. So many, in fact, that there is a glossary at the end, should you feel the need.
The multitude of characters and the loose storyline make it impossible for the novel to be a restless page-turner. The plot sags at times, and Yokoyama’s penchant for journalistic accuracy often clogs the flow.
Seventeen is much more slow journalism than breaking news. And like with any patient reportage, following this one through to the end has its obvious rewards.
Seventeen; Hideo Yokoyama, t rs Louise Heal Kawai, Riverrun, ₹499
