Popular Hits of the Showa Era

Popular Hits of the Showa EraIn his most irreverent novel yet, Ryu Murakami creates a rivalry of epic proportions between six aimless youths and six tough as nails women who battle for control of a Tokyo neighborhood. At the outset, the young men seem louche but harmless, their activities limited to drinking, snacking, peering at a naked neighbor through a window, and performing karaoke. The six "aunties" are fiercely independent career women. When one of the boys executes a

In his most irreverent novel yet, Ryu Murakami creates a rivalry of epic proportions between six aimless youths and six tough-as-nails women who battle for control of a Tokyo neighborhood. At the outset, the young men seem louche but harmless, their activities limited to drinking, snacking, peering at a naked neighbor through a window, and performing karaoke. The six "aunties" are fiercely independent career women. When one of the boys executes a lethal ambush of one of the women, chaos ensues. The women band together to find the killer and exact revenge. In turn, the boys buckle down, study physics, and plot to take out their nemeses in a single blast. Who knew that a deadly "gang war" could be such fun? Murakami builds the conflict into a hilarious, spot-on satire of modern culture and the tensions between the sexes and generations.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 01/31/2011
ISBN: 9780393338423
Pages: 192
Weight: 0.35lbs
Size: 8.22h x 5.58w x 0.51d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 09/06/2010
Library Journal 11/01/2010 pg. 57
Booklist 12/15/2010 pg. 21
New Yorker (The) 02/07/2011 pg. 81