not terrible, but i expected better based on his other books...and, to be honest, the title.

A good view into the conflict of desires that constituted the 1960s in Japan.

J'hésite entre 3,5 et 4/5. J'ai vraiment accroché rapidement, j'ai beaucoup aimé le style d'écriture, direct, mais à environ la moitié du roman j'ai ressenti un certain ennui. 1969 est une sorte d'autobiographie, direction l'année 1969, l'auteur nous raconte (sans vraiment l'avouer) sa jeunesse, l'année de ses 17ans. Un contestataire en quête de son identité. Beaucoup de références, Velvet underground, Rimbaud et même Godard.

Mon avis plus complet : https://spoilersbymelo.wordpress.com/2016/03/25/1969-de-ryu-murakami-au-coeur-de-la-jeunesse-japonaise/

This was a very enjoyable read about a young man's coming-of-age in 1969. He organises a protest with his friends which includes barricading the school, graffiti-ing slogans on the walls, and leaving a turd on a desk. In the right company, he talks about the crimes happening in Vietnam, Marxist ideology, and liberation from the conservative norms. But in reality, he simply wants to look cool so he can impress a girl. In many ways, the book is a metaphor for all the performative left-wingism of early youth. And it's funny with it.

I wouldn't describe the book as anything heavyweight, in fact, you'll read through it very quickly, but it still contains some fun ideas and language. There are, understandably, a lot of pop culture references regarding the era, everything from the Beatles to Zeppelin, and Camus to Alain Delon etc. Plus, the ongoing Americanisation of Japanese culture. Ultimately however, the book is about youth, friendships, first loves, and so on. And the writing is very fluid and easy to digest with short chapters and humorous dialogue.

I enjoyed it a lot but would ultimately class it as a very light read.

It passed the time, but I didn't get into this book anywhere near as much as some of Murakami's other books. It's a kind of retrospective, longing for the supposed best days of your life tale, with the guy looking back at the year of '69, when he was 17 and the goings on at high school and what he and his buddies got up to. These teens are all full of American culture with music and film, and influenced by left wing movements and anti establishment, anti Vietnam war... they even barricade the school at the end of term as some kind of protest, including pooping on someone's desk. There's also the festival he decides to plan, which ends up just being a screening of a wierd film they made. But essentially everything they do is just a way of getting girls. So, typical teenage boys then.

I got this book as a present and man was it the perfect gift. I generally give a book 5 stars if I enjoy any part of it. It feels a shame to give this book only 5 stars since I enjoyed every page of it an awful lot.