Love Ryu Murakami's work. This was good but placed next to his other work I have to call it weak. However, Ryu Murakami's "weak" is better than some author's "good".

This book concludes my 5 book marathon of Japanese authors. During this stretch I read two other books by Ryu Murakami and this one couldn't have been more different. There weren't any ice picks, murders, sex or graphic violence to be found in this book. Murakami shows that his talent does not lie solely in the violence and insanity of Piercing and In the Miso Soup.

It is a story of a boy's 17th year set in 1969. It is filled with the usual coming of age tropes but never comes off as stale and is brought to us from a Japanese perspective. It was heartfelt, entertaining and a worthwhile read. If you are interested in seeing the softer side of Ryu Murakami than this is the book for you.

Décevant. J'ai eu l'impression d'avoir déjà lu 200 fois le même livre sur cette période.

Ne pas se baser sur 1969 pour se faire une idée sur Murakami.

Ryu Murakami, 69 (Kodansha, 1987)

Murakami (no relation to Wind-Up Bird author Haruki Murakami, by the way) is (or bloody well should be) best known in the west for writing the novel upon which Takashi Miike's most astounding film, Audition, is based. (It has recently been translated into English. Miike fans, rejoice.) He first came to the attention of the horror underground, though, with a book called Coin Locker Babies, which, as it turns out, is very difficult to find these days. In fact, I put in a request for it at the library and instead ended up with this odd, fun, rather beguiling little novel instead. ([b:Coin Locker Babies|14289|Coin Locker Babies|Ryu Murakami|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166586117s/14289.jpg|16345] is still, it seems, missing in action. I put in another request for it. We'll see what happens.)

Obviously autobiographical in nature (set in the town where Murakami was born, with a protagonist the same age he was at the time, etc.), but one wonders if any writer this side of Fannie Flagg is capable of writing himself with such a jaundiced eye. Ken Yazaki is seventeen in 1969, utterly bored with school (and horrified at the idea of going on to med school, which he has been studying for), grabbing every attempt he can to latch himself into the American-inspired underground culture, and the most unreliable narrator this side of the guy sitting next to you at the lunch counter telling you about the five-foot bass that got away. In order to facilitate getting laid, he and his best friend, Iwase, decide they want to put on an avant-garde festival (Americans old enough to remember the sixties, think "happening" here); music, film, drama, art, poetry, you name it. To this end, Ken ropes in a serious, diplomatic chap named Adama, and the three of them set out to start making music, film, drama, etc. Along the way, they get caught up in the protest of the Vietnam War, leading to an idea to blockade the school.

Most of the time, you just end up shaking your head and wondering what is going through this kid's mind. But as the novel progresses (and this could be used as a textbook for the writing 101 tenet that in order for a book to work, the lead character must change in some way), we get more insight into what's going on in Ken's head. Whether that's because he's discovering it himself or just more willing to reveal his thoughts is left to the reader to decide. As we get more insight into Ken, the book becomes better, so the first few chapters may drag some. Stick with it, this is fun stuff. The plot is just scatterbrained enough to work (and to his credit, once Murakami gets Ken onto one track, he does tend to hold it to its logical conclusion), the characters are engaging, and the book ends up being a lot of fun. Not your usual coming of age tale. ***

3.75 Stars

This book was a lot of fun to read. Even though our main protagonist is very unlikeable, the way the author portrays him makes him incredibly comical. The protagonist Ken is both a satire of the anti-establishment teenager of the 1960s and a true representation of the adolescent experience. His idolization of both himself and certain girls is ridiculous but often hilarious in its exaggeration. The female characters are not very complex, but to be fair, they are only representative of the way Ken either puts them on a pedestal or completely dismisses them and should not be read as being a true representation of women and girls.

Of course, I couldn't write this review without comparing Ryu to Haruki. I enjoyed this novel much more than Haruki's Kafka on the Shore because it takes itself far less seriously. Unlike Kafka, Sixty Nine does not pretend to be actually representative of the way people act and behave. In Sixty Nine, the characters' behavior is exaggerated to criticize youth culture of the era as well as the established norms and social practices. In Kafka, the characters' unrealistic interactions was supposed to be taken at face value by the readers - at least, that was how I interpreted it. For me, it seems, a horny teenage boy narrator is more palatable when the novel isn't afraid to satirize the pretensions and hypocrisies of teenagers, rather than trying to make the teenage narrator out as the world's biggest genius and most misunderstood person.

I was worried by the first page, with its lazy misogyny, but it soon became clear that this was the rites of passage story of an immature boy, posturing with his attitude to women. After a couple more pages, I warmed to the protagonist. This is a slight book and, thankfully, not in the same violent vein as In The Miso Soup or Audition. I could hear the main character's voice and imagine the events easily, and it made me feel nostalgia for an era that existed before I was born. It reminded me of Submarine and From Up On Poppy Hill.

Actually felt like I was 17 again while reading this.

If only I'd done anything half as crazy as Murakami had in his seventeenth year.

Kensuke Yasaki es un chico egocéntrico y despreocupado, pero a pesar de eso tiene muy buenos amigos. El último año de secundaria los arrastra a todos a organizar el primer festival artístico en su ciudad, protestar contra la guerra en Vietnam y ser suspendidos de clases, todo para enamorar a la chica más hermosa de la escuela. Ese último año le ayudará a crear un lazo especial con sus amigos, no importa que tanto los separe la vida.
Entretenida.