I’d like to nominate a book for the Advanced Book Club :
コインロッカーベイビーズ
Author:村上龍
Summary
Japanese
1972年夏、キクとハシはコインロッカーで生まれた。母親を探して九州の孤島から消えたハシを追い、東京へとやって来たキクは、鰐のガリバーと暮らすアネモネに出会う。キクは小笠原の深海に眠るダチュラの力で街を破壊し、絶対の解放を希求する。毒薬のようで清々(すがすが)しい衝撃の現代文学の傑作が新装版に!
English
Two babies are left in a Tokyo station coin locker and survive against the odds, but their lives are forever tainted by this inauspicious start. Raised amidst the outcasts and misfits of Toxitown, they carve out vastly different paths: one as a bisexual rock star on a desperate search for his mother, the other as an athlete consumed by revenge against the woman who left him behind.
When their twisted journeys start to intertwine, this savage and stunning story plunges headlong into a surrealistic whirl of violence.
Length: 576 pages. this is for the new edition, in one volume, I have an old one in two volumes, with 上 volume being 258 pages, and 下 volume being 248 pages, so we could split, and, if people are interested, finish the 下 volume as an informal club
Category: Not sure … It’s modern japanese, and long, so it should go into Category 1, easy and fast, but Natively has it at L43… So probably we could do one volume as a Category 2, slow and difficult
Natively link: コインロッカー・ベイビーズ | L43
Availability
Amazon JP - ebook
Amazon US - ebook
Open Library - 上 - Free !
Amazon JP - Paperback
Unfortunately, not available on Bookwalker, and no audio book
Personal Opinion
This book has been on my reading list forever, even before I started learning japanese, as it is quite famous here in France in translation. It was awarded the 野間文芸新人賞受賞 prize in 1981. The author also received the Akutagawa Prize for their first novel, 限りなく透明に近いブルー, and reviews say コインロッカーベイビーズ is more polished.
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- While being modern, it’s a more literary work than mysteries and thrillers. Like 蛇にピアス, the novel deals with aspects of japanese society which are not often put forward
Cons
- The novel is VERY graphic, for both sex and violence. I haven’t read it, but I read the first pages, which are gross enough… and I read イン・ザ・ミソスープ from the same author, which is on par with Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho . It’s probably not for everyone… There’s a sample on the Kindle edition page so you can see what you are getting into…