Two writers that share a last name but explore opposing themes in their work, Haruki and Ryu Murakami are like the two sides of the same coin. The former embraces the American culture that influenced him during his childhood, seen in his fifth novel, Norwegian Wood, which shares a title with a song by The Beatles The latter, on the other hand, is extremely critical of America’s influence over his native Japan, and this is exposed in his short novel Almost Transparent Blue, set in the areas surrounding an American military base.
Ryu Murakami wrote this thrilling masterpiece while in college. Set in the 1970s, it serves as a portrait of youth immersed in a world of hedonism. The narrator, Ryu, is a 19 year old boy looking for meaning in life. He spends his days with his partner, Lilly (a prostitute who works at a restaurant), and his friends; they all take drugs, go to rock concerts and parties, and engage in promiscuous sex. Murakami shines a harsh light on the negative effects of Western culture on Japan by describing a group of lost, young people who only find solace through pleasure and altered states of being.
The hedonistic group of friends organize parties for the American soldiers, whose confinement in the base drives them to look for immediate release and pleasure in the surrounding neighborhoods. Sinful delights abound, with drugs and heavy alcohol consumption are dotted with prostitution and violent brawls that often times lead to stabbings. Many of these parties end up in sexual orgies where nationality, age, and race are forgotten. Their actions are a reflection of the void that appears in young people who feel lost and in soldiers leading a lonely life away from home.
This existential angst felt by the characters is numbed by the effects of their hedonistic lifestyle. It’s common to feel emptiness and lack of meaning when growing up, a state that can bring about reckless behavior, but the Japanese youths take things to such extremes that the effect it has on the reader is similar to that felt when watching Martin Scorsese’s film, The Wolf of Wall Street, where funny scenes of sexual encounters and drug consumption eventually grow tiresome and finally become exhausting studies on the emptiness of the characters. Both the book and the movie ask us to feel pity for these people, whose pain becomes unbearable and brings about dire consequences.
The feeling of dread and loneliness experienced by the youngsters is present throughout the entire novel, as they seem stuck in a never ending loop of negative thoughts and destructive behavior. This depiction is not unlike our present day situation, where depression and drug abuse have become an important problem in contemporary societies. Forty years after the novel was first published, Almost Transparent Blue is a powerful, honest portrayal of a problem that’s only gotten worse with the passage of time, and it’s never been more relevant than in the twenty-first century.
If you’ve already read Almost Transparent Blue, try these books that prove that love can be ordinary and 72 books you should read before your 30s.
