In the September edition of Small Press Bookwatch, the Midwest Book Review agrees that Hideo Okuda's In the Pool is "deliciously twisted":
Award-winning Japanese author Hideo Okuda presents In The Pool, a wildly popular Japanese novel that has been successfully adapted to a major Japanese motion picture. "Doctor of Neurology" Ichiro Irabu is a therapist for the image-conscious and all too often mentally pressured people of Japan, and his odd methodology of sharing his patients' stress-related problems and making them much worse before they get better distinguishes him sharply from his colleagues. His patients include a man who suffers a constant and painful erection, a pretty young woman convinced that every man she meets on the street is a stalker, a high school student addicted to text messaging the "friends" he desperately craves, and a journalist terrified his house will burn down should he leave it. A deliciously twisted commentary on human neuroses, with wit and insight that translates seamlessly between cultures. Highly recommended.
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