Ryu Murakami

[beer good]

Just finished "In The Miso Soup" and liked it a lot. The comparisons to "American Psycho" are definitely valid - VERY violent, yet making you think. The only other work of his I'm familiar with is that he wrote the novel that Takashi Miike's movie "Audition" is based on, and I really liked that too. So I'm going to try and read something else of his, so... any opinions, anyone?

[Gem]

Beergood,

..So I'm going to try and read something else of his, so... any opinions, anyone?

Coin Locker Babies - it's imaginative, a little weird, but very compelling.

[beer good]

Sounds good, will try to find that one. Thanks!

[The waveguide]

I was yesterday in a bookstore trying to find "Ender's Game" for my friend's birthday. Nope, none, the world had forgotten the amazing Orson Scott Card.

Instead, most of the shells were filled with books of Murakami. So many of them! Who is this guy? What kind of books are those (what genre)? I was rather intrigued to spot this strange name in European book store! I guess that I'll put him on my to-be-read! Which book is the best of his you think?

[beer good]

Originally Posted by The waveguide

Instead, most of the shells were filled with books of Murakami. So many of them! Who is this guy? What kind of books are those (what genre)? I was rather intrigued to spot this strange name in European book store! I guess that I'll put him on my to-be-read! Which book is the best of his you think?

You sure it wasn't Haruki Murakami? Because Ryu and Haruki have about as much in common as Douglas Adams and Richard Adams, and I've never seen any European bookstore with more than one or two books by Ryu.

But judging from the books I've read of both, Haruki Murakami writes huge, postmodern novels about life and pop culture in Japan. Ryu Murakami writes lean, mean, dark-as-hell books about death in Japan. I'd recommend both.

[beer good]

Almost Transparent Blue (1976)

It did get kind of rough, but if there's another party I guess I'd go, there aren't really many times you can have fun, are there? When nothing's fun anymore, I'll just get married.

We get thrown right into Almost Transparent Blue when the narrator wakes up, woken by the buzz of a small insect; a seemingly insignificant detail among many. Ryu is his name, Lilly is his girlfriend who's just shooting up some heroin as they go through their normal morning ritual of talking about what happened the night before; all a blur of impressions, details, people. It's Japan in the early 70s, they live next to a US military base, therey's plenty of junk food and drugs and rock'n'roll if you're willing to provide the sex. What else are they going to do?

I wasn't sure what to expect of this novel; having read one of Murakami's later works (In The Miso Soup) and seen one of his movies (Audition) I had a vague idea that it would be violent and explicit, and it certainly is, but there's one huge difference here. Almost Transparent Blue has almost no horizon. Those other works look up, they make connections; they are vicious critiques of both Japanese society and fascination with US culture, but in ATB all of that is almost only represented by absense and disconnection, everything in microperspective; they're the first generation born after the war, with no ties to the old world, but their only ties to the new one are killing them. We follow Ryu and his group of friends as they move from flat to hotel room to flat to rock concert to flat to hospital, fucking, getting fucked, getting fucked up. 125 pages, no real plot outside of the gradual breakdown of their friendship. Not romanticised, not condemned, just related.

Almost Transparent Blue echoes both Burgess and Ageyev in the way it uses violence and delirium not as exceptions but as the rule by which the world works, and if someone told me that Denis Johnson read this before writing Jesus' Son I wouldn't be at all surprised. What makes it great, though, what makes it more than just a titillating tale of teenage sex and junkiedom, is - much like Johnson's book - the clear, bleary-eyed storytelling, the prose that's so full of wonder and serene beauty in every grimy detail, that wants so desperately to capture all this on paper, as if Ryu the narrator hasn't been able to sleep since he finally looked up that last morning and has to tell us about these people, have to put them down on paper, show us why and who and what they were in all their tragedy, why he cared about them before he falls asleep and it's all lost to him.

The book ends with Ryu the novelist breaking the fiction, addressing Lilly directly, begging her to get in touch with him if she's still alive. I don't think I want to know if she ever did.

[ishel]

Originally Posted by beer good

...Haruki Murakami writes huge, postmodern novels about life and pop culture in Japan. Ryu Murakami writes lean, mean, dark-as-hell books about death in Japan. I'd recommend both.

Completely with you in that, beer good! I have read two of Haruki's and only one of Ryu's (In the Miso Soup) so far, but definitely plan to read more of both. Your summation of the themes of each author is perfect. I do think that Haruki can be pretty dark at times as well. I have just finished his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing and there are a number of passages dealing with death and suicide, and a number more which are very nihilistic, but the darkness is more subtle and not as pervasive as Ryu's.

(Interesting to see, by the way, that you wrote what I am quoting over three years ago, and have just yourself today returned to this thread for the first time since then)

[ishel]

By the way, I see that Ryu's Audition is about to be released at last in English translation - here it is at Amazon: www{dot}amazon{dot}com{forward-slash}Audition-Ryu-Murakami{forward-slash}dp{forward-slash}039333841X{forward-slash}ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267758582&sr=8-4 where you need to replace the items in { } with the actual punctuation.

(I tried to post the URL in context but the admins in their wisdom have determined that I must make 15 posts before I can post URLs; also, I tried to edit this into my last post so as not to make a trivial post, but the admins have determined that you can only edit your post for 15 minutes. Oh well, I know all this is only for our protection! )

[frint]

Originally Posted by beer good

Just finished "In The Miso Soup" and liked it a lot. The comparisons to "American Psycho" are definitely valid - VERY violent, yet making you think. The only other work of his I'm familiar with is that he wrote the novel that Takashi Miike's movie "Audition" is based on, and I really liked that too. So I'm going to try and read something else of his, so... any opinions, anyone?

what is "in the miso soup" about?

[ishel]

Originally Posted by frint

what is "in the miso soup" about?

There's a short article about it on Wikipedia - just type in the title and you should get it, or search for Ryu Murakami (I'd give you the link, but I'm not allowed to use URLs yet, doh!)

A couple of reviews from Amazon (again, I would just link you to the page if I was able to):

"Ryu Murakami has never written about violence, but about the causes of violence - and not direct, ordinary causes, but the underlying psychological tensions in human beings which lead to violence. The psycopath in the novel, Frank, describes violent tendencies in children as the product of anxiety, an attempt to prove that the world will not collapse when some horrible act is perpetrated. 'Anxiety' is certainly a good term to describe the book, or any of Murakami's - every scene vibrates with an eerie strangeness, and human relations take unexpected turns. In the end, the product is somewhat mystifying, but provides a good read and ample food for thought. What it does best is pair images of extreme innocence and extreme violence, produce alternate reactions of sympathy and disgust, and force a reader to suspend all kinds of belief and judgement until the page-turner narrative is over. Still, what it isn't is a thriller, a character study, or a book with any clear message. The character of Frank could be taken to represent many things - the destructive effect of confused intentions on an insular culture, or a human loneliness common to both this American and the Japanese protagonist, or any misfit lashing out against a restrictive society. In any case, it's one of the most fascinating contemporary novels I've discovered."


"With all of the sex and violence in In the Miso Soup, it would be easy to miss or dismiss Murakami's central purpose in writing this book - to highlight the severe problems and harshly criticize modern Japanese society. America lies within Murakami's cross-hairs as well, but Frank's function is as much to personify America's problems as it is to serve as the "outsider's eye" on Japan's issues.

Much like Coin Locker Babies, In the Miso Soup builds up to a single act of violence, and allows the reader to draw his conclusions from the aftermath. Like most other Murakami stories, violence is both destructive and cathartic, and it is in the scene at the club that the reader fully comprehends Murakami's message. Japan, like Kenji, is empty, lost, materialistic, detached, and passively voyeuristic. America, like Frank, is brutal, naive, judgmental, and schizophrenic. Both have a mutual attraction toward the other as Kenji has always wanted to go to America, and Frank is happy to finally be "in the miso soup". Both have a mutual distaste and distrust for the other as well. There is a fundamental gap between the two as well, one that surpasses language and culture, rooted perhaps in the fact that both cultures are both paradoxically fearful and ambivalent toward strangers and outsiders. It is only after the act of violence that both achieve a kind of understanding and peace, and seek the ideal that is represented by the New Year's bells.

In the Miso Soup is full of the annoying blanket statements and conclusions along the lines of "We Japanese are like this" "You foreigners/Americans are like this" that will probably vex most readers (and especially those of us who lived in Japan and confronted these superficial stereotypes daily) but the points Murakami makes are well taken. Agree with them or not, Murakami has created a chilling parable where he lays bare his thoughts on the pressing social problems of Japan and the US. Whether one looks upon Frank as a mere "virus" or an agent of change also depends on the reader's viewpoint. The scenes of violence will offend many (if not most) readers, but it is my hope that people can and will read past the violence and sex to see the social commentary that lies at the core of Murakami's story.

Frank asks Kenji, "Did that scare you?" but the question stands for the reader as well. If your answer is yes, then Murakami's mission has been accomplished."