Rating: 
Summary: sex & drugs, sex & drugs, ... Japan as you never knew it
Review: 'Almost Transparent Blue' is very difficult to review. Although a translation, the book is well-written and the prose, such as it is, flows well. But there is almost no plot, just and endless sequence of young Tokyo-ites getting stoned, puking, and having violent sex. The characters are wasted youths.But there is almost, *almost*, a charm to this book. It does have a flow like something from Kerouac, and it captures nicely the lives of lost Japanese youths of the 1970s. Yet it is such a bleak, *totally gross* read that I can't recommend it to anyone. Instead look to *Haruki* (not Ryu) Murakami's works for a more palatable view of modern Japan/Japanese people. Bottom line: weird, some curiousity value, but too vile to recommend.
Rating:
Summary: sex & drugs, sex & drugs, ... Japan as you never knew it
Review: 'Almost Transparent Blue' is very difficult to review. Although a translation, the book is well-written and the prose, such as it is, flows well. But there is almost no plot, just and endless sequence of young Tokyo-ites getting stoned, puking, and having violent sex. The characters are wasted youths. But there is almost, *almost*, a charm to this book. It does have a flow like something from Kerouac, and it captures nicely the lives of lost Japanese youths of the 1970s. Yet it is such a bleak, *totally gross* read that I can't recommend it to anyone. Instead look to *Haruki* (not Ryu) Murakami's works for a more palatable view of modern Japan/Japanese people. Bottom line: weird, some curiousity value, but too vile to recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: Poignant and disturbing
Review: I found this story to be very sad but a great story about despair and the quest to find meaning in one's life. I'm not sure that the characters in the story ever find stability, but they do glimpse at authenticity at moments. The story is a bit disturbing by its sense of hopelessness and consistent passivity, but then most good existentialist (nihilistic?) tales are like that. I recommend this book because of the author's great ability to show us the inner emotions (or lack thereof) of his characters. It is a fast read (I read it in a night), but readers will most likely reread the ending a couple times and still won't be sure of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Incredible!!!
Review: In all honesty, I stumbles uon Ryu Murakami's work by accident. The cover of Coin Locker Babies looked cool, so I read it. Ever since, I've been in love with Murakami's work. This novel is no exception. He has this gift of being able to describe a setting in so few words, yet he invokes so much emotion and provides the reader with a clear visual. I recommend this book to anyone that is a fan of incredible writing.
Rating:
Summary: "But maybe we'd feel something after all..."
Review: It's 1976, and a group of Japanese teenagers living near an American airforce base indulge their appetites for drugs, alcohol and bi-curious group sex. Like most sensual quests for liberation and vision, these only lead to the annihilation of consciousness and a confusing desire to escape back into bourgeois life. Getting high is one thing. Connecting with reality is something else. In 126 pages of orgiastic indulgence, drug-induced catatonia and suicide attempts, there are three moments of transcendence in which Murakami's case is made: the memory of a beautiful piece of music; the experience of almost being killed by an aircraft taking off; and the narrator's climactic desire to communicate a personal vision of the world, himself and their possible unity. Murakami's call for connection and creativity in the face of mortality and post-war nihilism is a familiar one in twentieth-century literature, but the way he goes about it is refreshing. Firmly realist in his approach, Murakami stays on the surface. Sticking with the physical details he refuses to burrow into the minds of most of these youths where he might have interpreted or psychoanalyzed their inner lives for us. Ironically, this works. Their own halting attempts at self-expression are so much more poignant, and so much more credible for being vague and incomplete. If the bulk of this narrative strikes you as tedious, pointless, repetitive and occasionally appalling, then Murakami has succeeded in capturing the reality of a life devoted to escapism. It's only in such a context that the moments of incipient self-awareness and transcendence can have such a powerful resonance for these characters, and for the reader.
Rating:
Summary: I read it by mistake...and was pleasantly surprised...
Review: Somebody told me I should read a book by Haruki Murakami...At the book store all of his works looked long and menacing...Then I saw Almost Transparent Blue...It sounded interesting, noticed it won an award, and it was rather short, so not much of a commitment if I didn't like his writing after all. So I read it, and I was expecting something in the realm of hardboiled fiction as his works were described to me. It wasn't until after I read the book that I discovered it was written by Ryu Murakami and not Haruki...DUH The scope of the novel seems to cover a drug/alcohol/sex binge over the course of a few days. There are lots of characters to keep track of and I had a bit of difficulty following which character was speaking from time to time. The plot drags in some spaces as the story jumps from orgy to shooting up and back again.
The characters are interesting but not very well developed. The author does take a bit of an interesting side look at how this lifestyle affects the relationships between several of the characters, but with the lack of much backstory on any of the characters it isn't easy to sympathize with them.
I enjoyed Almost Transparent Blue mostly due to Murakami's writing style, and use of very vivid imagery.
All in all I found the story interesting and I would recommend to anyone who doesn't mind gratuitous sex, drug use and the occasional rock and roll reference.
Read it and judge for yourself. If you like it you might want to read his much longer and more in depth second effort Coin Locker Babies.
Rating: 
Summary: makes sex & drugs seem as boring as hell
Review: this book is monotonous, just scene after scene of drugs and puking and sex. it's shocking for the first page or two, then just banal.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing and beautiful!
Review: This book won the Akutagawa Award, changed modern japanese literature, and is a favorite of japanese college students. The only american novel I can equate with this one is Requiem for a Dream. Except it's even more hardcore! I remember reading this on a train and having to stop myself and breathe, no exaggeration, it was that intense! The writing here isn't prose, but poetry. Murakami puts graphic (even brutal) scenes of sex and drug use next to scenes of quiet reflection (watching rain, childhood memories) to create a sense of hopelessness and desperation. However, taken in the proper context, this book will leave you uplifted rather than depressed. One of my favorites!
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for Eastern Literature
Review: Through the course of Almost Transparent Blue, Ryu whirls the reader into the Japanese subculture of the sixties. Although the story may seem predictable and not quite a shocker, it serves to decentralize the focus of the American "hippie" to other cultures of the time. I feel that any reader will walk away from this book with quite a different image of Japan. The ending of this short novel is the most fascinating section. Here Ryu interlinks his society to himself as an individual and the rather despondent substance abuse that plagues his world. A good story to read at least once!
Rating:
Summary: The unreal world of drugs
Review: What happens when forms of escapism become one's whole exisitance. Takes one into the insipid world of a Japanese drug addict the group he flocks with, and the depraved world he lives in. Shows modern Japan the escapism pervading much of its culture today. The main character becomes so lost it takes a symbol of nature to see how hopeless ever being found is and the unnaturalness of his life. Drugs are boring but hard to escape which is why there are so many avid salesmen selling their foray into quicksand. What they can't return to is the natural world. A trip.
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