Book Review
Title: Almost Transparent Blue
Author: Ryu Murakami
Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating: **
Review: After reading In this Miso Soup and loving it and wanted to read all of Ryu Murakami’s books and Almost Transparent Blue was his first book. This review is going to be different from my other ones as this book has been described as being almost plotless but it is semi-autobiographic and follows a group of friends locked in a destructive cycle of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, which reminds me of Requiem for a Dream which I almost enjoyed.
I mentioned this review was going to be different and it is because the book despite only being 128 pages long has no chapters and reads like one huge drug induced haze with tiny moments of lucidity in between. We are introduced to a large cast of characters including Ryu, Kei, Reiko, and Lilly who are all what I would classify as drug addicts as they can’t go one day without getting high in some fashion. They take everything from heroin to pills, mixing it will booze and the whole thing is backdropped by some classic rock and rock tracks including the Doors and the Rolling Stones. It bounces around different days without any warning but given the drugs they are taking I am surprised anyone managed to keep track of time at all, but what is most disturbing about this so far is the parties they attend. The parties start off with them just getting high, having some drink and food but very quickly descends into a hotbed of sex, violence, abuse, and rape. There isn’t any distinction between male and female sex scenes and they are both treated in an equally violent manner but some part of themselves seems to enjoy even though Ryu feels like vomiting most of the time.
The second half of this novel is even more of a trip than the first. We get to see the relationships between the characters break down as the need for drugs overrides reality and reason along with it. However, Ryu has never seemed overly comfortable in the environment where others seem to thrive and when Kei is beaten up really badly by her boyfriend who she is trying to leave and then he tries to commit suicide, he gets the feeling that there is more to life than this drug induced haze. Towards the end he ends up in a wild trip, I don’t know whether it was due tod rugs or a moment on insanity but it started him on the road to becoming a better person. He even write a letter to Lilly asking how she is doing and where she is and that he’d really like to see her again despite their history together. This book is labelled as semi-autobiographical and that comes across in the writing as the only person who could write those drug filled benders in the fashion it is written, is someone who was there at the time but it was weird. I loved In the Miso Soup as it was dark, atmospheric, and really creepy but Almost Transparent Blue while fun to read, had no plot whatsoever and it was just a really strange experience to read. I am hoping that Ryu Murakami’s other books are more like In the Miso Soup than this book.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami
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