Product Description

In 1969 we were seventeen. We listened to the Beatles, the Stones, the Doors, the Velvet Underground, the Grateful Dead, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Bob Dylan. We read Rimbaud, played guitars, smoked pot, fell in love, rebelled against the establishment, protested the war in Vietnam, barricaded our high school, and produced the first rock festival in our home town - a small city in a remote southwestern corner of Japan. "69" is a roman de clef about coming of age during a time that left its mark on baby boomers around the world - a time when we really believed we could change the world before it changed us. By turns hilarious, cynical, frivolous, and poignant, the book is infused from start to finish with Ryu Murakami's relentless energy and optimism; and it simply refuses to get tedious, preach, or "literary" for a single moment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43377 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-07
• Original language: Japanese
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Synopsis
In 1969 we were seventeen. We listened to the Beatles, the Stones, the Doors, the Velvet Underground, the Grateful Dead, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Bob Dylan. We read Rimbaud, played guitars, smoked pot, fell in love, rebelled against the establishment, protested the war in Vietnam, barricaded our high school, and produced the first rock festival in our home town - a small city in a remote southwestern corner of Japan. "69" is a roman de clef about coming of age during a time that left its mark on baby boomers around the world - a time when we really believed we could change the world before it changed us. By turns hilarious, cynical, frivolous, and poignant, the book is infused from start to finish with Ryu Murakami's relentless energy and optimism; and it simply refuses to get tedious, preach, or "literary" for a single moment.

Customer Reviews

Light and entertaining read
This is a very funny novel, the protagonist is a wise guy who recounts his experiences at school. I enjoyed the wackyness, the sharp style, realism and inter-relationship of the characters.

Above all this is a novel simply to be enjoyed - I read it over the Bank Holiday Weekend and it went by very quickly. I hope Ryu comes out with something like this in the future, as it seems to have been a one-off.

Unsettling
I first read this book on a trip to the northern lights and couldn't decide if I really liked it. Its unsettling weave or story and stance is indeed unique and sets the reader on a rare trip - to somewhere out of their control. Just wander with the story but don't fight it.