Popular Hits of the Showa Era by Murakami Ryu

Originally published in 1994, Popular Hits of the Showa Era was published in a translation by Ralph McCarthy by Pushkin Press in 2013. The novel displays many of the hallmarks of Murakami's writing, there are scenes of wrenching violence and explorations of psyches that usually remain in the shadows. The novel opens introducing a group of maladjusted young men whom have little in connection apart from perhaps a shared disconnection with society, the men party and a reoccurring motif appears in the form of a beautiful woman who appears in a window opposite theirs who through various points in the story is usually spied on in a state of undress. The action of the novel comes into motion when one of the group, Sugioka, murders a woman in what seems to be a random and impulsive act of violence, the victim was Yanagimoto Midori, a woman who was a generation or so older than Sugioka.

This murder introduces us to the two groups which become the rival gangs of the novel, which at various points are referred to as the Midori Society and the Nobue/Ishihara gang. We are introduced to their idiosyncrasies and peer into the generational gap or crack between the two. The Midori Society, who all share the same name with the initial victim are made up ostentatiously of Oba-sans, karaoke buddies, women of a certain age, the group includes a divorcee and others appear to be facing various stages of mid life crisis, but display fantastic abilities and organisational skill when it comes to avenging the murder. The Nobue/Ishihara group is made up of essentially a group of young men who appear to be slightly off kilter, maybe best described as misfits. The novel essentially follows the groups as they progress in taking revenge for the initial murder, taking a member out of each group one at a time, or towards the end of the book that number increases, as does the extremities of the violence and methods used in efforts to exterminate the members of the opposing group.

In places the novel displays a dark humour and there's an equally dark satire going on with these observations of the generational gap taken to maximum extremes of violence, Murakami is uncanny at bringing these hidden pathological psychologies on to centre stage and putting his foot on the accelerator, depicting perhaps the unspoken vengeful impulses of society. With the novel's title in mind the characters of the book reference a number of songs throughout, it could quite easily come with an accompanying cd and perhaps before setting out on a reading of this novel it might help to put on a few tracks by Frank Nagai or Sachiko Nishida to serve as a contextual backdrop.

Popular Hits of the Showa Era at Pushkin Press

             

From the Fatherland, with Love - Murakami Ryu

From the Fatherland, with Love is a gargantuan book in many ways, its appearance into English has taken the work of three translators - Ralph McCarthy, Ginny Tapley Takemori and Charles De Wolf, the translation flows so well that you wonder at how they might have approached the translation, whether perhaps in parts individually or maybe as a group. The novel has been selected from the ever decreasing number of titles available through the JLPP, perhaps in English translation Murakami's novels appear to fall into various camps, in one there are what could be loosely called his tales of contemporary horror such as Audition, In the Miso Soup, Piercing, and in the other there are his stories chronicling the lives of the dissolute members of society, the Akutagawa Prize winning novel, Almost Transparent Blue, 69, and to an extent Coin Locker Babies, a common aspect to Murakami's writing is his ability to present in a dispassionate voice the raw and often brutal aspects of life as it is lived for his protagonists, in From the Fatherland, with Love this can be seen in the group of societal misfits and violent criminals that slowly come together under the enigmatic leader Ishihara. The novel was originally published in 2005 in two volumes and is set in 2011 where through economic down turning sees Japan's position in the world marginalised.

Although some of the characters are more prominent and longer lasting than others, (Ishihara, Tateno, Jo Su Ryeon, - the KEF's press officer), throughout the novel, there is not really a main protagonist to the book as the narrative comes to us through a number of various characters points of view, it begins to separate out into three main perspectives, that of the Ishihara gang, the KEF - (Koryo Expedition Force), that have landed in Fukuoka from North Korea to initially hijack the city's sports Dome and also to that of the Japanese authorities in a hastily convened emergency meeting that are responding to the invasion, the plot involves an elaborately planned deception. Reading From the Fatherland, with Love, you can be reminded of those series of history books entitled What if..?, Murakami has applied this question to create a hypothetical narrative that at times feels unnervingly convincing, probably one of the most terrifying aspects is the KEF's cruelty and torture which is cloaked under an amiable hospitality on the surface. The novel is a large one, but with it Murakami has created a space in which that through his characters has enabled him to explore and address the concerns which both reflect the real and also of the well pondered hypothetical. 

Similar to the epic novels of yesteryear at the beginning of the book there is a detailed list of principal characters, and as each character is introduced they are usually also given an additional biographical portrait, new characters are introduced even in the final pages although Murakami's view is panoramic in displaying how the unfolding events encroach into the lives of the novel's characters. As these events unfold we usually view them from one groups perspective, in places the full details of events are not fully disclosed to one party, so by turns we see how events are presented and then we see how they actually occur, each time this happens previously withheld details are revealed to the story and the narrative grows and develops, in this way it conveys very well the process of how information can be manipulated, it at times feels something akin to working your way through a series of inter locking rooms. Added to this there are events that we become aware of first but remain unknown to the characters, we read as they unknowingly approach the events we are already privy to. Trying to convey this fantastical plot line, it feels to begin with that there is a constant feed of facts provided to keep the feasibility of it afloat, and Murakami does a pretty convincing job at this, although with a novel of these proportions and alternating perspectives there's a few moments where it feels like it dips into occasional  repetition, but these are slight and essentially part of the novels structure.

Through this hypothetical narrative Murakami also gives over many episodes to examine many different issues, how the two different cultures perceive one another, the North Koreans surprise of the initial passivity of the Japanese, and as the soldiers become more adapted to life in Japan there are various scenes in which they become apparent of civil liberties previously unbeknown to them, and the added luxuries of smoking real brand cigarettes, the softness of the fabric of clothes, also the coming into contact with morally corrupting pornography which potentially threatens morale. Also in various instances the characters talk of the two nations past history and turbulent relationship, this probably is most markedly looked at near the end of the book in the relationship between Dr Seragi, an aging doctor who works in the hospital situated next to the KEF's encampment and Hyang Mok, a female member of the KEF, Dr Seragi had attempted in vain to halt an execution being carried out by the KEF, Hyang Mok witnessed him being restrained and taken away but later meets with him. In turn the conversation turns to events from each of their pasts, for Dr Seragi his regret and being unable to prevent executions carried out by the Japanese during the days of the occupation, and for Hyang Mok her sense of guilt over the death of her child through starvation.

Perhaps some might not appreciate how the novel develops a scenario or character only to drop it to move on to the next, it could be said that this is an integral to the novel's pacing, but if someone were also to mention that this is one of the most impressive of Murakami's novels to be translated to date, you'd probably be hard pressed  to disagree.


From the Fatherland, With Love at Pushkin Press

an interview with Murakami Ryu via Pushkin Press at vice.com

Many thanks to Pushkin Press for providing a reading copy.   





 

69 by Murakami Ryu

Practically found myself being pulled through this novel, as at first appearances I'd anticipated that it might read a little like Murakami doing Murakami as the theme and setting have some undeniable overlap, although the narrative throughout '69' has it's own distinctive pace and confidence, originally published in Japan in 1987 the novel turns 25 this year, this edition is the Kodansha one, although the novel will be re-issued by Pushkin Press next year. Set in the year 1969, (of course..), the events are seen from the perspective of seventeen year old Yazaki Kensuke, the narrative is a retrospective one although this doesn't really become apparent until the end of the novel. To what degree the events in the novel could be related to Murakami's life I'm not sure, but the setting is Sasebo, where Murakami was born and Murakami was also seventeen in 1969, an enjoyable aspect to Yazaki relating his story is at times at the beginning or ending of describing events are his imaginative elaborations on the truth, and then a quick correction by describing the true turn of events.

The novel evokes the prevailing mindset and mood of the period, the student movement, (Yazaki organizes a barricade at his school, painting slogans on the walls), and it's soundtrack, The Beatles, Dylan, Janis Joplin, and also the writers read, Camus, Rimbaud, Burgess, also the anti-Vietnam movement. The real motive for Yazaki's political motivations   become apparent, to impress the opposite sex, a subplot that runs throughout the novel is that he and his friends are organising a festival which he gives the name 'Morning Erection Festival', which will include the screening of an avant-garde film that they producing, which they hope will star girls from the school. The portrait that Yazaki gives is a searingly honest one, and at times unflinching which may sit uncomfortably in places, Yazaki can't help seeing through the pretensions of his teachers and to a degree others around him. Being a portrait of the juvenile years of a young man it's got everything you'd almost come to expect, girls, brushes with authority, gang fights, (almost), but at the end of the novel Murakami in a post script fills us in with what the characters have done with their lives subsequently. It's remarkable to note  that most of the references in the book are of Western things, maybe this is a true picture of 1969, (or the late sixties), in Japan, but it remains of course a snapshot from one perspective, Yazaki is likened to Chuya Nakahara at one point, although he struggles to picture this actor before remembering his real identity, perhaps this represents an unintentional repudiation of the past. The novel was translated by Ralph F. McCarthy, two of Murakami Ryu's short stories, The Last Picture Show and Whenever I Sit at a Bar Drinking Like This, I Always Think What a Sacred Profession Bartending Is, can be read at (Words without Borders).

From the Fatherland with Love

The first half of 2013 already begins to look like it will see the publication of a lot of new titles,in addition it looks like the Pushkin Press will be re-publishing two of Murakami Ryu's back list titles in May: Coin Locker Babies and Popular Hits of the Showa Era, (which I've yet to catch up with), along with a new translation, From the Fatherland with Love, by Ralph McCarthy, whose translation of Katydid by Dazai Osamu also appears in this months Asia Literary Review. Obviously nothing official at the publisher's website yet, but news of new translations is always welcome, the quality of the presentation of Pushkin Press titles is always impressive, so I'm looking forward to seeing these.