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1StevenTX
Review copied from my Club Read thread and posted on the book page:
Kensuke Yazaki is a 17-year-old student in his final year of high school in 1969. It is a turbulent year in Japan as elsewhere. Since the beginning of the year protests against the Vietnam war by students at Tokyo University have paralyzed the campus. Kensuke lives in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, where the roar of Phantom jets from a nearby American base is a constant reminder of the war. So Kensuke's thoughts never stray far from... girls. What else would a 17-year-old boy be thinking of?
Kensuke, who prefers to be called "Ken," has a sharp and inventive mind but middling ambitions. He would be satisfied with almost any girl until a chance comment causes him to set his sights at the very top: Kazuko Matsui, the queen of the school's English Drama Club and known to the boys as "Lady Jane" (from the Rolling Stones' song). Lady Jane, in spite of her pure reputation and innocent Bambi eyes, is all in sympathy with the student protests. This is all it takes to turn Ken into the school's leading radical voice and get him into more trouble than he can imagine.
Compared to Murakami's earlier novels such as Almost Transparent Blue and Coin Locker Babies, Sixty-Nine is light almost to a fault. Aside from the language you would expect from teenage boys, there is nothing here to shock or offend--no violence or drugs and only a lot of wishful thinking where sex is concerned. The book doesn't attempt to grapple with the issues of the time, but is simply a portrait of teenage life in 1969 as the author himself no doubt experienced it. In the end we see that Ken has somehow managed to do the right things for all the wrong reasons and has come to a fuller perception, if not an understanding, of himself and his world.
Kensuke Yazaki is a 17-year-old student in his final year of high school in 1969. It is a turbulent year in Japan as elsewhere. Since the beginning of the year protests against the Vietnam war by students at Tokyo University have paralyzed the campus. Kensuke lives in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, where the roar of Phantom jets from a nearby American base is a constant reminder of the war. So Kensuke's thoughts never stray far from... girls. What else would a 17-year-old boy be thinking of?
Kensuke, who prefers to be called "Ken," has a sharp and inventive mind but middling ambitions. He would be satisfied with almost any girl until a chance comment causes him to set his sights at the very top: Kazuko Matsui, the queen of the school's English Drama Club and known to the boys as "Lady Jane" (from the Rolling Stones' song). Lady Jane, in spite of her pure reputation and innocent Bambi eyes, is all in sympathy with the student protests. This is all it takes to turn Ken into the school's leading radical voice and get him into more trouble than he can imagine.
Compared to Murakami's earlier novels such as Almost Transparent Blue and Coin Locker Babies, Sixty-Nine is light almost to a fault. Aside from the language you would expect from teenage boys, there is nothing here to shock or offend--no violence or drugs and only a lot of wishful thinking where sex is concerned. The book doesn't attempt to grapple with the issues of the time, but is simply a portrait of teenage life in 1969 as the author himself no doubt experienced it. In the end we see that Ken has somehow managed to do the right things for all the wrong reasons and has come to a fuller perception, if not an understanding, of himself and his world.
2rebeccanyc
Hmm. This almost sounds like a Ryu Murakami I could read, although I do feel if I'm going to try another Murakami it should be one of the ones that "shock or offend!" However, since I was in high school in the US in 1969 (although not yet a senior), it might be interesting for a cross-cultural picture.
