Popular Hits of the Showa Era

From 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.) (c)
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From

Murakami’s deviously captivating novel about class and gender roles in twentieth-century Tokyo recounts the tale of six disaffected teenage boys and their attempt to satisfy an incomprehensible inner longing. Seemingly innocent, charmingly aloof, the boys spend evenings laughing uncontrollably for indeterminate reasons, belting karaoke tunes, and settling important matters with paper-rock-scissors tournaments. But their detachment turns disturbingly real when one of the boys dispassionately murders a member of the Midori Society, a group of six middle-aged women, all divorced mothers who can’t seem to find love or happiness without one another. Once the Midoris seek their revenge, one of the funniest and strangest gang wars in recent literature ensues. As the battle becomes increasingly violent and the body count rises, the surprisingly optimistic opponents seem incapable of distinguishing the difference between defending a friend’s honor and satisfying a lust for vengeance. Murakami’s characters can seem unfeeling, nihilistic, and self-indulgent, but the moral weight of this darkly comic tale is rooted in a crucial era in Japan’s history, characterized by alternating periods of peace and extreme violence. --Jonathan Fullmer