Ryu Murakami's first novel, which won the Akutagawa Prize, takes place in a town near a U.S. military base in Japan in the early 1970s. A group of young men and women live in a haze of drugs, sex and loud music, drifting through days with no plan. The narrator, Ryu, observes their lives and the hallucinations that arise, including a growing sense of numbness. The prose is blunt and sensory and the plot is minimal, with an atmosphere of sadness beneath the excess.
Readers who like transgressive fiction and Japanese youth culture of the seventies will find a short, provocative book. It is quite different from Haruki Murakami's work.
Balanced in tone; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Story Seeker. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1976
- Language
- EN
