Popular Hits of the Showa Era: A Novel

Is there any explanation for all the rage and violence festering around the world? Perhaps. Murakami may be explaining it (sort of) in this novel - but on an intimate human scale.The plot centers around two bizarre groups. Six young men strangely lacking in normal emotions drift together and start partying on a regular basis. And six loveless women in their late thirties, with nothing in common but the name Midori, meet regularly to socialize.In both groups the members talk to each other without listening, eat awful food, drink a lot and play at karaoke. Their get-togethers are mindless and ritualistic.Violence erupts and escalates between these two groups with a shocking progression that's both unbelievable and totally involving and convincing. I'm leaving out absolutely all the details so you can take the stomach-churning roller-coaster ride for yourself.There's also a diabolic catalyst who stirs up trouble, a junior college girl with "a smile like rotten eggs and mildewed cheese and poisonous toadstools." The brief but pernicious appearances of this astonishing character are oddly amusing.Popular tunes add yet another layer of unreality to the story. The sentiments of these songs have no meaning to the disconnected characters singing them. As one young man remarks, "Murder is the only thing that has any meaning these days."Murakami's scenes sometimes remind me of a Cezanne still life - disturbingly off balance yet doggedly colorful. He's a brilliant, idiosyncratic, weirdly funny writer who focuses on the most unexpected things. I was fascinated, for example, by his endlessly nuanced descriptions of imbecilic laughter.Popular Hits of the Showa Era is intense, but I'm glad I read it. I'd recommend it to readers who enjoy pondering the human condition - and aren't squeamish about carnage or pathology.

"They always say that when human beings are extinct, the only living thing left will be the cockroach, but that's bullshit. It's the Oba-san" (Oba-san refers to middled aged women in Japan)This totally irreverent, violent and somewhat bizarre novel has some incredibly funny moments. A group of young males, misfits in their own right, gather weekly for a party in Nobue's apartment to drink, giggle hysterically, munch on snacks, lust after a woman in an apartment across the street and put on costumed singing shows on a deserted beach. When one among them finds himself following an Oba-san after a drunken night with his friends, he is filled with a rage that has him reaching into his belt, pulling out a knife and slashing her throat. This action though, starts a chain of events nobody could have predicted.A group of middle aged divorced women discover that one of their own has been senselessly murdered when one of their members comes across the victim's body. Finding a clue among the blood soaked clothes, she takes it to the group and they vow vengeance.What ensues is a strangely compelling war between two improbable gangs. As the body count rises, so does the violence and the methods of exacting revenge. The at-times brittle prose only adds to the tension and the schizophrenic kaleidoscope of sights and sounds that fills the mind while reading this novel.This book is also a study of loneliness and how groups sometimes form of individuals who want to be in company but aren't all too interested in understanding the personalities of the individuals in the group. But sometimes all that's needed is a single catalyst to convert individuals into a cohesive group. It was fascinating watching the evolution of the group take place, even as I found myself chortling at some of the inappropriately irreverent sentences.

This apparently isn't one of Murakami's best, but it was fine enough for what it was... Which was mainly confusing and weird. I probably don't understand enough about Japan to get what it was entirely about, and I certainly don't understand Murakami enough, but neither does Japan, probably. I haven't read Piercing, which by many accounts seems to be held in higher regard, so maybe it's not so bad I read this one first.You need to realise something before you read this, though: the description of the book might be a troll. When speaking of the young men, it makes them sound a lot more normal than they are; they tend to burst into meaningless laughter at random, for one thing. I won't tell you anymore, because I think that's the best way to go into the book; just expect madness. It's why you should be here, for general craziness punctuated by some extreme violence. The weirdness of the book isn't super upfront, instead presented with little fanfare, and mostly uneasy, contrasting with the seemingly normal world the story takes place in. It's kind of like looking an uncanny picture, that seems like it's normal, but something isn't quite right. Murakami has a real weird sense of humor.I think the best part of this book is the length; the ending is abrupt, but I welcomed it. There was only so much of the weirdness o could take, and it ended right before I started to get tired of it.Despite the middling review score, I still recommend it if you want to read a story that will make you squirm, grimmace, and laugh a bit while asking what the hell was going through the author's head. It won't stick in your mind after you are done, but that's not a bad thing. Hug Chickenpenny is another book you might want to check out after this, and maybe Piercing (though I still have to read that one myself).

Llego antes de la fecha límite y en buenas condiciones. Lo recomiendo.

Did not enjoy the register-hopping translation at all, unfortunately.

Una historia cargada de humor, una sucesión de crímenes enlazados por la casualidad y la venganza. Merece la pena echar el rato con esta novela.

I've read a lot of Murakami Ryu's books and this is one of the best. Its really well written and flows easily, you kind of get into a rhythm with his books that carries you along. The dialogue is funny and often shocking at the same time. If I had to put my finger on a main theme I'd probably say trauma and re-building after trauma.My favourite scene is towards the end when two of the characters go to a convenience store and ask the clerk for food that will "warm the cockles of the heart", and the clerk gets the manager who undertakes the task really seriously. I like those kind of random but funny moments that make reading the gory bits a bit more meaningful.If you like hard boiled realism its probably not for you as the story is really out there, but if you like witty narration and the odd poignant moment its a winner.The title is kind of off-putting because it seems like its going to be a book with lots of fan-boy style pop culture references. There are a few of those, but nothing that stops it being a great book by a great author.

I have only recently started getting into Japanese fiction and I find it interesting because the style is so different to what we are used to in the west. And this book definitely meets this criterion! It is a very easy read, but with very well developed, larger than life characters. You won’t find any hidden messages here or any thought provoking dilemmas. At the same time, it is really well written with a few clever and unexpected situations thrown in which keep the reader’s interest going. It is a comic book without the pictures, but the writing is so good that it is like watching a film in your head. Definitely black humour; a lot of comic situations laced with extreme violence. “Itchy and Scratchy” from the Simpsons, but with humans. I can see Quentin Tarantino having a field day with a screen adaptation of this book!In summary, an unbelievable story expertly delivered.