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Ryu Murakami is the best-selling author of more than a dozen novels and the winner of Japan’s prestigious literary award, the Akutagawa Prize. Many of his novels have been made into movies, including Audition. He lives in Japan.
Popular Hits of the Showa Era
by Ryu Murakami
eBook
$11.49
$13.95
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ISBN-13:
9780393340372
- Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
- Publication date: 01/31/2011
- Sold by: Barnes & Noble
- Format: eBook
- Pages: 192
- File size: 231 KB
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From the author of Audition, a wickedly satirical and wildly funny tale of an intergenerational battle of the sexes.
In his most irreverent novel yet, Ryu Murakami creates a rivalry of epic proportions between six aimless youths and six tough-as-nails women who battle for control of a Tokyo neighborhood. At the outset, the young men seem louche but harmless, their activities limited to drinking, snacking, peering at a naked neighbor through a window, and performing karaoke. The six "aunties" are fiercely independent career women. When one of the boys executes a lethal ambush of one of the women, chaos ensues. The women band together to find the killer and exact revenge. In turn, the boys buckle down, study physics, and plot to take out their nemeses in a single blast. Who knew that a deadly "gang war" could be such fun? Murakami builds the conflict into a hilarious, spot-on satire of modern culture and the tensions between the sexes and generations.Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
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Nathaniel Rich
Popular Hits of the Showa Era is…a reminder that [Murakami's] one of the few subversive writers we have.—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
Violence aficionado Murakami (Audition) drops a motley cast into a late 20th-century Japan that's all decadence and social ineptitude. Though six young men have nothing in common except for having "given up on committing positively to anything in life," and are incapable of sustaining meaningful conversations, they get together often to drink, peep on an unsuspecting neighbor, and put on extravagant karaoke shows at a deserted spot on the coast. But when one of them impulsively slits a woman's throat, he places his gang in opposition to the friends of his victim, a bevy of divorcées known as the Midori Society. The women exact revenge, the men respond with another blow, and the cycle of vengeance continues with ever-increasing gore and giddy nihilism. As it turns out, murderous revenge is just the thing to bring meaning back into life, and nothing nourishes friendship like a common cause. Murakami's crackling prose makes the sickest human instincts seem fun. (Jan.)The New York Times
Murakami’s novels are filled with entertaining psychopaths.... it’s a reminder that he’s one of the few subversive writers we have.— Nathaniel RichNathaniel Rich - The New York Times
Murakami’s novels are filled with entertaining psychopaths.... it’s a reminder that he’s one of the few subversive writers we have.Library Journal
Award-winning author Murakami's (Audition) latest offering is a mix of humor, satire, and conflict that begins with a random act and escalates into hilarious devastation. The battle is simple—six aimless boys take on six battle-tough, divorced, career-thirsty women in their late 30s and early 40s all with a common link, the last name Midori. The result is irreverently epic. The six young men spend their time drinking, snacking, peeping at the naked neighbor, and enjoying extreme karaoke. During a long night of partying, one of the young men commits a vicious attack on one of the "aunties," and the battle begins. The Midoris unite to seek revenge for the death of their close friend and strike back. It isn't until the twenty-something slackers immerse themselves in physics (creating a secret weapon) that we realize the significance and the hilarity of the gang war at hand. VERDICT Darkly humorous and volatile, this offbeat book blows apart the generation gap. Sure to appeal to the author's fans and readers who enjoy cutting-edge fiction.—Ron Samul, New London, CT