69 (Kodansha Modern Writers) [Paperback]

Ryu Murakami (Author), Ralph F. McCarthy (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Kodansha Modern Writers | Publication Date: May 1995

Ryu Murakami, along with Haruki Murakami (no relation), is one of the best-selling writers in Japan and a major figure in contemporary popular culture. Since publishing his first work, Almost Transparent Blue, which won Japan's most coveted literary prize in 1976, Ryu has produced a steady stream of novels, stories, and essays that consistently astound and delight readers with their wild flights of imagination, irreverent humor, and brilliant, convincing portraits of some of the quirkiest characters in Japanese literature.

69 is a roman a clef about coming of age during a time that left its mark on baby boomers around the world--a time when we really believed we could change the world before it changed us. By turns hilarious, cynical, frivolous, and poignant, the book is infused from start to finish with Ryu's relentless energy and optimism; it simply refuses to get tedious, preachy, or "literary" for a single moment.

The book is composed of the following: "Arthur Rimbaud," "Iron Butterfly," "Lady Jane," "Daniel Cohn-Bendit," "Claudia Cardinale," "Power to the Imagination," "Just Like a Woman," "Alain Delon," "Lyndon Johnson," "Cheap Thrills," "Amore Romantico," "Wes Montgomery," "Led Zeppelin," "April Come She Will," "Velvet Underground," and "It's a Beautiful Day."

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

If asked to give an idea of what it was like to be a 17-year-old in Japan in 1969, most Westerners would not likely guess that it was very much like being a 17-year-old in the United States. This novel gives a light, rollicking, sometimes hilarious, yet never sentimental picture of late-Sixties Japan in which the somewhat roguish protagonist plays in a rock band, listens to the Beatles and the Stones, reads Rimbaud, talks about Godard, barricades his high school, and creates a multimedia festival, ostensibly for the sake of art and political ideals but in actuality to impress girls. The innocence behind the facade of worldliness that characterized the era is cleverly captured, and the pace never lets up. Recommended for collections with an interest in contemporary Japanese fiction, this could also be included in high school fiction collections.
- Mark Woodhouse, Elmira Coll. Lib., N.Y.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Murakami's tale of high-school high jinks and adolescent angst in Sasebo, Kyushu, Japan, in the year of Woodstock and Yellow Submarine could, with only minor adjustments, be moved to Oxnard or Omaha or Oxford (Mississippi or the U.K.). And 69 demonstrates that for Kensuke Yazaki and his friends (and enemies) in Sasebo--as for kids elsewhere--rock music and art films, demonstrations and festivals, and strained relations with parents, teachers, and police were central elements of growing up in the late 1960s. Using a multinational miscellany of poets, bands, politicos, and song titles for his chapter headings, Murakami--who won his nation's highest literary award in 1976 for Almost Transparent Blue (1992), his first published work--captures the heady mixture of innocence and cynicism, wisdom and foolishness, that convinced his generation that positive change would come because "the whole world is watching." Mary Carroll --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha Amer Inc (May 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770019513
• ISBN-13: 978-4770019516
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,026,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun in 69, August 21, 2002

By 

Daitokuji31 (Black Glass) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 69 (Kodansha Modern Writers) (Paperback)

Those looking for a book about sex don't read this one. Hehe, the 69 here refers to the year 1969 not the position. The hero of this book is Ken Yazaki. A very intelligent 17 year old who wants to be on the top of popular culture. He spews off the names of french writers, poets, and film directors, without having read their work or watced their movies. Ken, however, is a very charismativ individual who gets people to follow him easily. His main two followers are his best friends Adama and Iwase. Ken is bored living in his small town in westerrn Kyushu and wants to do something dramatic. First he joins a Communist clique in his school that he takes over as soon as he joins, and later he throws a rock festival.

The book is quite funny. Ken is a very likeable individual who starts off many paragraphs with tall tales and then he says that really didn't happen. It is quite entertaining. I have read three of Murakami's books now, and I believe this one falls somewhere between _Almost Transparent Blue_ and _Coin Locker Babies_ Good book that gives the reader a glimpse of late 60s Japan.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Power to the Imagination!, June 2, 2006

By 

Zack Davisson "japanreviewed" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sixty-Nine (Paperback)

Mention the name Ryu Murakami and there are usually visions of nihilism, self-destructive sex and drugs, and a dismal portrait of the scum-encrusted shadow world of the rebellious youth of Japan. After all, this is the author of the novel that spawned the film "Audition" and who wrote the infamous opening lines of "Coin Locker Babies," "The woman pushed on the baby's stomach and sucked its penis into her mouth; it was thinner than the American menthols she smoked..." Pure punk rock on page. No future. So, pick up a book titled "69," the fourth book translated into English by the prolific author, and your expectation is...

...anything but this. Anything but a brilliant, light-hearted, fast-paced trip through the lazy hazy days of the Summer of 69, a time of unprecedented freedom when a guy and his good buddies could throw together a band, a rock festival, and maybe a little bit of student rebellion all for the hope that the prettiest girls in school might be just a little more impressed with them and let them in on that magic secret they keep under their skirts. Don't get me wrong, this is still punk rock, but this is punk rock before it got a name, and still had the skin of innocence and the youthful sheen of tearing things down with hope for a better future. This is just fun.

As he did in "Almost Transparent Blue," Murakami has stitched together his own past with a dream of idealized youth, creating a believable world of kids giving full reign to their impulses, free from the controlling influence of authority. His protagonist in "69," Kensuke Yazaki, didn't exactly just get his first real six-string at the 5 and Dime, but he is the drummer for a garage band that plays the latest Stones and Cream, although they have never had a real gig. He drops quotes of Rimbaud poetry and recommends counter-culture books, although he has never actually read them. He would totally smoke marijuana if he knew how to get any, and he would totally join in on the Free Love movement if any girl would let him.

But Yazaki is a small-town kid, and while he can read about the goings on in San Francisco and even Tokyo, maybe fantasize a bit, his own little backwater town isn't exactly bursting into the future. He's not going to let that stop him, though. He's got a plan, he's got a buddy, and he's got a girl to impress. He's seventeen years old, its the summer, and the year is 1969. Its time to do something stupid, something outrageous, and have a good time.

Ryu Murakami shows his range with "69." He is a lot more than the dark shadow of modern Japanese literature, much more than the Batman to Murakami Haruki's Superman. Most of all, he sums up what it means to be young all in one line. "Victory went to whoever had the most fun." Amen.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a light-hearted comedy uncharacteristic of Murakami, but ultimately worth a read., March 19, 2006

By 

Hyde Chua "the h" (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 69 (Kodansha Modern Writers) (Paperback)

69 is a light-hearted comedic novel unlike the other three translated novels by the same author, and should not be compared side-by-side with their heavy postmodern themes.

Instead, 69 offers the viewpoint of a youth born in a small Japanese town influenced by western movements of that time, in particular the avant-garde, the political situation and the music of that time. Combining politicos, yakuzas, greasers, rock musicians who only knew how to sing "dontcha know" and play three chords and your average high-schooler, Ryu Murakami has captured a perfect snapshot of youth.

Possible themes involve the concept of American occupation of Japan during that time, Japanese youth and their fickle-minded apathy (combined with a short attention span), but these are only painted with broad strokes as the narrative refuses to dwelve further into these possible issues, although one can guess the author's viewpoint on these issues through their passing mention thereof.

Nonetheless, the time and themes in this novel are immaterial. This novel is skillfully rendered, hilariously portrayed, and light-hearted enough to illicit a laugh from even the most gloomy postmodernists. In the pursuit for heavy meanings, perhaps we have overlooked what 69 represents: it is the beauty of youth that is meant to be lived-- instead of wasted-- that truly counts beneath the mish-mash of social groups presented in this novel.