Almost Transparent Blue
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Book Overview
Almost Transparent Blue is a brutal tale of lost youth in a Japanese port town close to an American military base. Murakami's image-intensive narrative paints a portrait of a group of friends locked in a destructive cycle of sex, drugs and rock?n?roll. The novel is all but plotless, but the raw and often violent prose takes us on a rollercoaster ride through reality and hallucination, highs and lows, in which the characters and their experiences come vividly to life. Trapped in passivity, they gain neither passion nor pleasure from their adventures. Yet out of the alienation, boredom and underlying rage and grief emerges a strangely quiet and almost equally shocking beauty. Ryu Murakami's first novel, Almost Transparent Blue won the coveted Akutagawa literary prize and became an instant bestseller. Representing a sharp and conscious turning away from the introspective trend of postwar Japanese literature, it polarized critics and public alike and soon attracted international attention as an alternative view of modern Japan.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:4770029047
ISBN13:9784770029041
Release Date:April 2003
Publisher:Kodansha
Length:128 Pages
Weight:0.40 lbs.
Dimensions:0.5" x 7.4" x 5.2"
Customer Reviews
4 ratings
Disturbing and beautiful!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
This book won the Akutagawa Award, changed modern japanese literature, and is a favorite of japanese college students. The only american novel I can equate with this one is Requiem for a Dream. Except it's even more hardcore! I remember reading this on a train and having to stop myself and breathe, no exaggeration, it was that intense! The writing here isn't prose, but poetry. Murakami puts graphic (even brutal) scenes of sex and drug use next to scenes of quiet reflection (watching rain, childhood memories) to create a sense of hopelessness and desperation. However, taken in the proper context, this book will leave you uplifted rather than depressed. One of my favorites!
Incredible!!!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
In all honesty, I stumbles uon Ryu Murakami's work by accident. The cover of Coin Locker Babies looked cool, so I read it. Ever since, I've been in love with Murakami's work. This novel is no exception. He has this gift of being able to describe a setting in so few words, yet he invokes so much emotion and provides the reader with a clear visual. I recommend this book to anyone that is a fan of incredible writing.
Very poetic
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
If you are intereseted in Japanese subculture you should read this book. It's completely different from "69" but just as addictive. Reading drug induced prose is always fun. But I can't tell for sure if this book is truth or fiction. He's a little too coherent to be a total druggie. It blows "Memoirs from a Geisha" away.
The book that defined modern Japanese literature
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 26 years ago
A fierce, grotesque journey through the depths of one man's apathy and suffering, Almost Transparent Blue remains one of Murakami's finest works, even 20 years later. This book was unique in Japanese literature at the time of its release, and literally defined the "hard boiled" style of writing that such contemporaries as Oe Kenzaburo and Haruki Murakami have embraced in recent years. Murakami is a marvel with metaphors; and I can guarentee the end of this blow will blow your mind.
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