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Almost Transparent Blue

by Ryū Murakami, Nancy Andrew (Translator)

3.34 of 5 stars 3.34 · rating details · 2,275 ratings · 160 reviews

Almost Transparent Blue is a brutal tale of lost youth in a Japanese port town close to an American military base. Murakami's image-intensive narrative paints a portrait of a group of friends locked in a destructive cycle of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. The novel is all but plotless, but the raw and often violent prose takes us on a rollercoaster ride through reality and ha...more

Paperback, 126 pages

Published April 11th 2003 by Kodansha (first published 1976)

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Community Reviews

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Jul 31, 2012 Jeffrey Keeten rated it 4 of 5 stars

I put the thin fragment of glass, dripping blood, in my pocket, and ran out into the misty road. The doors and windows of the houses were shut, nothing was moving. I thought I'd been swallowed by a huge living thing, that I was turning around and around in its stomach like the hero of some fairy tale.

Almost Transparent Blue

A warning to any potential readers of this book. There is explicit, graphic sex in the first half of this novel. If you are prudish about group sex, alternative sex, or say s...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Erik rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don’t have much to say about this brief and rather shallow debut, which details the squalid sex-and-drug-fueled existences of a group of young Japanese lowlifes/layabouts in the 1970s, except that it’s lurid, grotesque, delirious, disturbing and oddly compelling. (I say “compelling,” but my readerly propulsion through the book may simply have been my desire to escape from these sordid characters and their dead-end lives as soon as possible). I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone or ever rea...more

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Jul 12, 2010 Jasmine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: japanese

John and Seth should not read this book.

right this book is about sex and drugs and it doesn't really have a plot. But I mean if you like books about drugs and really graphic descriptions of violent psedorape are your thing I say go for it. There is also a fun lsd feel to the book if you can get over the other stuff.

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Nov 14, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: japanese-literature

It will take a bit of digestion to form a coherent response to this book. The first half was a drag. Violent sex and drug use depicted with skilled, lovely prose, a special focus on body fluids. The only factors that kept me reading were the shortness of the book and the author's skill, because these first sixty pages were deathly boring.

In the second half, something like a story of a dark personal transformation begins to emerge. Free of the blizzard of pills and orgies, the writing focuses on...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Patrick McCoy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: japanese-literature

Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami is a short novel, only 128 pages. But it was also quite a strange novel; the beginning was full of raunchy sex, massive drug taking, and the expulsion of all types of bodily fluids. It doesn't settle down much as a group of Japanese friends take drugs, fight, and deal with existential dread. I guess it caused quite a stir when it was written more than 30 years ago. I think it follows from the tradition of Osamu Dazai, who was another self-destructive writi...more

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Jan 27, 2009 Kevin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: weird-lit

Published in Japan in 1976, this book turned into a Naked Lunch sort of drug-lit phenom. At times, I felt like the violent sex was a bit overdone and I leaned toward a 3-star rating, but there are enough great sentences and amazing imagery to push it to a 4. Ryu takes a lot of chances here--no sturdy plot, odd moments of melancholy, some repugnant scenes, too many characters--but it comes together more often than not, and I was so intrigued by the end, I went and read all the amazon reviews just...more

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Mar 31, 2007 Scott rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: the deranged

The Other Murakami's oeuvre really wavers in quality. Almost Transparent Blue is hopefully the lower limit.

There were tons of digusting sex and drug scenes, and I don't think I'm some stuck up old prune (ok, maybe I do), but lots of it was just uncalled for.

I don't mind if you want to paint a picture of your days in the gutter, that's fine... but if you're going to subject me to little Japanese girls getting dicked bloody by a group of huge (huge) guys, please move the story to a satisfying conc...more

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Apr 11, 2013 Nathaniel Snell rated it 4 of 5 stars

A series of episodes, barely trying to cohere into an overarching plot, detailing a group of Japanese 20-somethings in the 1970's who like to get really fucked up. The whole thing is driven by the characters' apathy and something 2/3 of the way from hedonism to nihilism, and their sporadic half-formed expressions of longing for some way out of this way of life. It's a really interesting premise, and the author does a good job at making a story driven by apathy work, which has got to be a dauntin...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone

As soon as I had read the first page, I knew that I had read “Almost Transparent Blue” at least once many years ago. Even though the weighty & lengthy TBR shelf chides me, I read it through on a long train ride. And I am glad I did. I know like and appreciate this more more than I did before.

This is Murakami-san’s first novel written in his youth about even younger youths. Is it autobiographical? I don’t know and don’t recall anyone ever saying so definitively. The main character shares his...more As soon as I had read the first page, I knew that I had read “Almost Transparent Blue” at least once many years ago. Even though the weighty & lengthy TBR shelf chides me, I read it through on a long train ride. And I am glad I did. I know like and appreciate this more more than I did before.

This is Murakami-san’s first novel written in his youth about even younger youths. Is it autobiographical? I don’t know and don’t recall anyone ever saying so definitively. The main character shares his personal name “Ryu” and certain places and situations reflect locations that the author was exposed to in these and earlier years.

You could call the novel “decadent”. You could also call it “self-indulgent” (“Ryu” and his friends are very much so). And despite it not having a traditional plot, I think that the layout of the novel and its progression was worked out either during the writing of the novel or during his editing (if any). Because with this second (third possibly?) reading I was able to see more of a pattern to it. But it feels like a stream-of-consciousness account of several days in the life of “Ryu”. How consecutive these days are or are not is difficult to discern.

Was it written as a form or rebellion against the status quo? Probably. In the 70s in Japan, as well as the US, the counter-culture that took root at the end of the 60s was still in full swing. The author himself participated in similar things as what goes on in the book. No matter how much we in the US think that society and family conspire to control how we behave and interact (I am taking the hard view here), it is nothing compared to those pressures in Japan and many other Asian countries.

The phrase, “the nail that sticks up will be hammered down” is a true insight into how conformity has been the overwhelming force in Japanese society for hundreds of years. A small island with a large population and few natural resources, they exist in population concentrations that we seldom encounter. Thus, cooperation and conformity are almost a necessity (again I exaggerate). Under such “rules” there is always a backlash. And in Japan that backlash has and I think always will be spectacular.

Many of my friends in Japan are non-traditional. Some more so than others, of course and none as wild as those in the novel. But, they have a spark in them that connects back to the rebellion that is in these characters. Asian cultures are often much more tolerant of the misdeeds of their children up until their twenties. But when they reach a certain age, then they are expected to transition into the role of good workers, citizens, and members of society. I’ve seen people who have done exactly that and others who reversed course and took themselves further out of play.

At the end of this novel, we are left to wonder what will happen to most of the players. But one, and perhaps the most surprising one, peels away and is not heard from again. Have they made their leap into conformity? We are never sure. But it is implied.

(Note there is another character who tells “Ryu” that this is almost exactly her own plan. Once she is bored with all of this (i.e. the drugs, sex, and rock n’ roll) she will settle down and get married.)

This is a stupendous first book by an author who went on to pen other works that have also been critically (and popularly) acclaimed. It can easily turn many people off, but it is different, strong, and entertaining. Four (4) star minimum – maybe “4.5”.

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Aug 19, 2012 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Time to get stoned! This novel can put you in a catatonic torpor, a drug-induced haze near the point where you are about to overdose and die.

First person narrative, here is someone named Ryu, not yet twenty, with his equally-young male and female buddies. Ryu is telling a story. You hear him, but do not really understand the story being told. The images will distract you and catch your full attention.

First there's this cockroach on some unwashed dishes. Then it is squashed. See the jelly-like su...more Time to get stoned! This novel can put you in a catatonic torpor, a drug-induced haze near the point where you are about to overdose and die.

First person narrative, here is someone named Ryu, not yet twenty, with his equally-young male and female buddies. Ryu is telling a story. You hear him, but do not really understand the story being told. The images will distract you and catch your full attention.

First there's this cockroach on some unwashed dishes. Then it is squashed. See the jelly-like substance that spurts from its violated body. And then the old, cut pineapple, its rancid odor; the blood on needles, heroin, hashish, mescaline, Nibrole pills dissolved in gin, Philopon, shooting up, vomit, spittle, saliva, unwashed smelly bodies, rock music, The Doors, Rolling Stones, Mal Waldron, James Brown, Billy Holiday, mouldy soup, rotten bean curd, dirty rooms, leftover roast chicken gone completely bad, old radio, black American studs with huge dicks, Japanese girls with small pussies, sex orgies--

"Pressing her chin on the table, breathin hard, Moko attacked a crab like a starving child. Then one of the blacks stuck his shaft in front of her, and she took that in her mouth too. Stroking it with her tongue, she pushed it aside and turned again to the crab. The red shell crunched between her teeth, she pulled out the white meat with her hands. Piling it with pink mayonnaise from a plate, she put it on her tongue, the mayonnaise dribbling onto her chest. The odor of crab flowed through the room. On the bed, Reiko was still howling. Durham pushed up into Moko from behind. Her butt jiggled, she held onto the crab, her face twisted, she tried to drink some wine but with the rocking of her body it went into her nose and she choked, tears in her eyes. Seeing that, Kei laughed loudly. James Brown began to sing...."

On to the glorious ending, a dead moth, a crazed Ryu ingesting insects, contemplates on a dead moth, sees a huge black bird, hallucinates, stabs his arm with a broken glass, bleeds and bleeds until he becomes "a boundless blue, almost transparent."

He survives, but only to write this novel.(less)

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Mar 15, 2011 Slbrowne rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is not for the slight of stomach. The first thing that happens? The narrator almost overdoses on heroin... and it goes down from there, but it's delicious all the way. It's one of those things that's so horrible you can't look away. Some of the scenes are very hard to read because it's just so damn painful (rape scenes, beatings, etc), but if you get through those there are some really beautiful ones. There's a great scene where Ryu and Lilly are tripping on mescaline and drive around...more

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Aug 20, 2010 Greg rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, cleaning-house

(Soundtrack for this review)

Do you want to know what I don't give a shit about? This book.

I made it a little more than a quarter through it (35 pages to be exact). I found the writing to be blah (to be fair, I think it is the translation), the type to be a bit too small and the font to be faintly illegible. I dreaded having to go on break and read more of this book, and did internal backflips when I noticed the a new Harpers just went on sale before I went on break and saw there was a new DFW...more (Soundtrack for this review)

Do you want to know what I don't give a shit about? This book.

I made it a little more than a quarter through it (35 pages to be exact). I found the writing to be blah (to be fair, I think it is the translation), the type to be a bit too small and the font to be faintly illegible. I dreaded having to go on break and read more of this book, and did internal backflips when I noticed the a new Harpers just went on sale before I went on break and saw there was a new DFW story in it. I broke my irrational ban on reading newly published DFW work in order to not read this book.

It's about drugs. Which is kind of a boring subject. Especially when it's about drugs and rock n' roll in the late 1960's / early 1970's. Yawn-ville. People from the hippie generation acting like drugged out assholes. Oh, so fucking counter-culture. Even if the book is in Japan, some assholes different country. There isn't even any kind of cultural difference because it's all part of the universal culture of idiocy.

This book did make me a little sad that because of some misguided decisions that I don't know nearly enough to really comment on, a country with it's own culture went into a war, lost, were occupied by a vacuous country that exported the worst they had to offer and undermine future generations.

I could have plowed through this book.

Instead my disgust with the book made me remember this quote from one of the members of Born Against:

"FUCK ROCK. Fuck cigarettes and slicked back hair that ends in a pony tail and a high door price. Maturity and progression do not mean status quo music and ideals. Under the false pretense of reaching new audiences, former punk bands bring us closer to square one, throwing out the window the foundation of independance which took years to build. This band is an attempt to reinforce those quickly eroding foundations. Maybe these "rock" types don't see it this way, but speaking as someone who has never been lured by the slippery slope of psuedo concerned UPC code post hardcore bullshit, common sense tells me that no matter how many reggae songs you write about human rights, your audience will still "rock out" and drink wine coolers. Then they'll go home and fuck like dogs to your politically concerned kick ass tunes. THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE!(less)

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Dec 15, 2009 Ben Loory rated it 1 of 5 stars

i liked Piercing and i loved In the Miso Soup, but i found this book (his first) just mind-numbingly boring. there's one point where the guy (it took me about 80 pages to decide that the narrator was a guy; even the talk of his penis never really convinced me) talks about the movie he'd like to make, which is simply a huge mirror that reflects back the audience... that was about the only moment in the book that seemed to show a little imagination (though let's be honest, not that much). i'm all...more

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Nov 03, 2010 Phoebe rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century, translated

It's a book that gives me no joy.

And because of it, I've begun to wonder, what kind of reader am I? Why do I read? What is it that I seek in a book?

Almost Transparent Blue is that kind of book.

The set-up obviously is really masterful. We know nothing about the characters. We only get a glimpse of their lives through Ryu's eyes. And then there's the letter. The end. I know it sounds basic, but due to the content, it really can be written in no other way.

If Lust, Caution for me was the movie that...more

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Dec 07, 2011 Lamski Kikita rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is not a book for those who can't handle a little sex and violence. I believe many people would not be able to face those, drop the book, and therefore miss the beautiful parts of it.

There's no denying that people have stereotypical images of Japan; cherry blossoms and samurai warriors, or super smart men in suites and girls in Hello Kitty goth clothes. This book reflects a reality that maybe no one wants to know; that of the youth on the margin of Japanese society.

There are many characters...more

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Jun 24, 2009 Chloe rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Junkies, Losers and Burnouts

Recommended to Chloe by: Matt Darnell

Shelves: fiction, joyous_nihilism, not-owned, 1001-list

Those who know me are well aware that I have an almost visceral love of twisted literature. Books that are the literary equivalent of a car crash; hedonistic revels that fade into subterranean nightmares. In other words, such extreme excess that you can't help but approach them with a mixture of sick curiosity and nearly overwhelming trepidation. For the longest time that has meant the blasted imaginations of my trifecta of favorite authors (Palahniuk, Irvine Welsh and Bret Easton Ellis) and occ...more Those who know me are well aware that I have an almost visceral love of twisted literature. Books that are the literary equivalent of a car crash; hedonistic revels that fade into subterranean nightmares. In other words, such extreme excess that you can't help but approach them with a mixture of sick curiosity and nearly overwhelming trepidation. For the longest time that has meant the blasted imaginations of my trifecta of favorite authors (Palahniuk, Irvine Welsh and Bret Easton Ellis) and occasional one-offs by up-and-coming writers such as Jeremy Robert Johnson's Angel Dust Apocalypse. Very rarely do I stumble across an author with a well-established body of work of the sort that I like to mainline like a junkie fresh from rehab.

Which is why I'm more than a little excited to have been exposed to Ryu Murakami. Within the first three pages of his Akutagama-winning debut novel, Murakami's disaffected Japanese youth growing up in the shadow of an American military base huff glue, shoot up some heroin and have sex in a flophouse that Burroughs would feel at home in. The next 100-odd pages are packed to the brim with more of the same- violent orgies with American servicemen, madcap mescaline adventures that end with them crashing a car onto a runway, more heroin, flashmobs beating security guards senseless and other signs of impending armageddon.

Murakami's plotless (pointless?) novella pinballs between the restless ennui of Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero and the senseless violence of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. At times extremely disturbing (I could have gone my whole life without reading the scene with the foot), Murakami still manages to paste together an interesting tale of cultureless youth emulating what they see as a stronger people, the servicemen who blow a mean sax, have the best drugs, and that suave intoxicating confidence of knowing you can do no wrong. A phenomenally quick read, not for the faint of heart, that has me excited to finally get to his more well-known books such as In The Miso Soup and Coin Locker Babies.(less)

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May 26, 2013 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

I was looking forward to reading this book for a long time. It's out of print in English, so tracking down a copy was a bit of a hassle, as I had a couple Amazon sellers say they were sending it, only to discover it was lost in their shelves. That's too bad, because it's a fascinating and important book, one that people should be able to get their hands on.

This book is about one thing, and one thing only: drug addiction. The characters live and die through heroin and its various cousins, and th...more

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Aug 30, 2009 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

The storytelling was indeed ‘violent’, in so many different ways and levels. On one end of the spectrum, the things that were happening within the story were violent. Sex and drugs, even when they are by themselves, are rarely subtle. But when huge quantities of both are mixed together within a single bowl, the result is an overdosage of violence.

But as if that wasn’t enough, even the prose was violent. Just reading the book itself, I felt like I was being pushed and shoved in all directions. So...more

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May 03, 2009 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: asian, read-2009

"You're always trying so hard to see something, just like you're taking notes, like some scholar doing research, right? Or just like a little kid. You really are a little kid, when you're a kid you try to see everything, don't you? Babies look right into the eyes of people they don't know and cry or laugh, but now you just try and look right into people's eyes, you'll go nuts before you know it. Just try it, try looking right into the eyes of people walking past, you'll start feeling funny prett...more

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Aug 02, 2012 natalie chin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

i like books with no, at least to me, 'narrative plot', and that the character's 'lifestyle' of drugs & orgies seemed to present itself without 'glamourizing' it, they were just things that happened to the speaker

i really enjoyed the middle part/'climax' where the speaker and a girl he hangs out with drives out in the middle of a thunderstorm, that scene felt very beautiful, emotionally & visually speaking

this is what Tao Lin said about that scene in his thought catalog essay about this...more

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Feb 16, 2012 Zee rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001challenge, booksread2012, contemporary, japanese

Am sorry to say that it's not as good as 'In the Miso Soup', although it has its moments. Favourite bits include the opening chapter and the bit where they are at the American air base during the thunder and lightning sequence.

Maybe it's just me, but there were times when it didn't make any sense, but then again this is a 'mood heavy' book, there is not a pronounced plotline, so the narrative sort of echoes the tumultuous lives of decadent Japanese youths. Kind of reminds me of 'Exit A' by Anth...more

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Nov 18, 2010 Manja rated it 2 of 5 stars

I didn't like this book at all, it seemed like something a young guy in his early 20s experimenting with drugs and alcohol would write..oh wait, that is what this book is like. Seems like Murakami just wrote about a lot of his own experiences, perhaps if I'd read the book in Japanese I would've enjoyed it more, but the English translation of it was just not for me. Too many parts in the book where you were left wondering, what the heck just happened here. However, I really enjoy a lot of Murakam...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Ángel Gilberto rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Ángel Gilberto by: Edmee Pardo

En la valoración de cada lectura, independiente de su calidad, siempre influirá la apreciación subjetiva del lector, su edad, la vida que lleve y lo que perciba.

Quizá por esas circunstancias, las mías,la novela de Murakami no me gustó. Puede que me desagradara. El libro es duro, protagonizado de manera total por el influjo de las drogas y el sexo. La historia se relata de un modo despersonalizado y brutal, por lo menos a lo que a mí me parece. No hay sentimientos, dolor, compasión, tristeza, es...more

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Oct 13, 2010 Marvin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Verbal Vomit.

That's the term I kept thinking as I read Ryu Murakami's debut novel Almost Transparent Blue; partially because he spent a lot of time describing both the action and the result. But mainly due to the author's relentless spewing of descriptions and actions throughout this plotless novel of junkies in Japan. It is not a pleasant book by any means but there is something very impressive, and chaotic, about the almost psychedelic stream-of-consciousness style. His later works are not lik...more

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Sep 01, 2011 C. rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: japanese

Ryu Murakami, tam bir Japon Bukowski gibi geldi bana okurken. O yüzden pek zevk almadım. Okumamın yarısı, bir an önce bu kitabı bitireyim diye çabalamakla geçti. Yine de okuduğum için kendimi mutsuz hissetmiyorum.

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Jul 21, 2011 Franco rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Me resulto muy complicado seguir la historia, si es que en algun momento la hubo. Los nombres japoneses me confundieron y llegue al punto de no saber quienes eran hombres y quienes mujeres. Incluso la narracion en primera persona me hizo pensar por momentos que cambiaba de personaje. Ni hablar de las drogas que consumian, que es la primera vez que las escucho.

El libro esta lleno de lenguaje corriente, y la traduccion espaniola no me ayudo a que me metiera en la piel de los personajes. Deberia ha...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Amerynth rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-books, drugs, fiction, read-2013, japan, sex

I wasn't a fan of Ryu Murakami's "Almost Transparent Blue," a story about a bunch of junkies in 1970's Japan. It wasn't the graphic sex and rampant drug use that bothered me... I've read plenty of books filled with those activities before. It's that it seemed to be written to simply be provocative without going anywhere. It didn't have a story arc or a plot really... it's all there to shock and amaze.

I am shocked and amazed, actually, that someone thought this needed to be on the list of 1,001 b...more

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Mar 06, 2009 Gertrude & Victoria rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: japanese-library

I was disappointed with Ryu Murakami's Almost Transparent Blue; even my modest expecations were betrayed.

I found much of the storyline too explict, gratuitous and repetitive, with little redeeming value. There were too many characters, doing too much romping and too many lines, which was all too hard to swallow - a jumble of flesh and powder without meaning or taste. But, if you have a penchant for "sex, drugs and rock n roll," you may want to give this a try.

Ryu Murakami was something of a cult...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Mathias rated it 4 of 5 stars

Someone bought me some Haruki Murakami books as a gift and grabbed this off the shelf by accident. I have to say it was a really dirty coming of age tale centered around some japanese youths in the counter-culture. I think I read the whole thing on a train ride from Michigan City to Chicago so you wouldn't be wasting much of your time by giving it a shot. I came to find out years later that the same author had written the book that the Miike film Audition was based on, which is one of few horror...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Tfitoby rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: lit, translation

Female News Host #1: On a personal note, that shit was fucked up!
News Co-Host #1: Yeah it was. I literally pissed myself.

Those words may well be from an entirely different medium but they essentially capture the blasé attitude of the characters in Ryu Murakami's debut novel. And on a personal note, that shit really was fucked up!

A plotless look at the lives of a group of friends who have partied way too hard for way too long and are now living a destructive lifestyle but don't really seem to car...more Female News Host #1: On a personal note, that shit was fucked up!
News Co-Host #1: Yeah it was. I literally pissed myself.

Those words may well be from an entirely different medium but they essentially capture the blasé attitude of the characters in Ryu Murakami's debut novel. And on a personal note, that shit really was fucked up!

A plotless look at the lives of a group of friends who have partied way too hard for way too long and are now living a destructive lifestyle but don't really seem to care what happens one way or another.

I was completely stoned. I felt as if my insides were oozing out through every pore, and other people's sweat and breath were flowing in. Especially the lower half of my body felt heavy and sore, as if sunk into thick mud, and my mouth itched to hold somebody's prick and drain it. While we ate the fruit piled on plates and drank wine, the whole room was raped with heat. I wanted my skin peeled off. I wanted to take in the greased, shiny bodies of the black men and rock them inside me. Cherry cheesecake, grapes in black hands, steaming boiled crab legs breaking with a snap, clear sweet pale purple American wine, pickles like dead men's wart-covered fingers, bacon sandwiches like the mouths of women, salad dripping pink mayonnaise.

That is essentially the first half of this novel captured in one paragraph. I wouldn't say that I am a prude or generally squeemish when it comes to literature; I have thoroughly enjoyed other novels from this author, especially In The Miso Soup, but this was a very difficult read. Four days to read a 125 page novel? There were times when I ust couldn't face reading more than two or three pages at any one time. But that doesn't necessarily mean it was bad, just that this Murakami doesn't write things that can be inhumed without serious consideration of its content.

As the first half orgy ends the book becomes an easier read, I found myself enjoying it a lot more, if you can call a novel that features random acts of violence, suicide attempts, copious amounts of illegal and hallucinogenic substances and rambling incoherent thoughts enjoyable. Murakami creates images like no other author I've experienced and in this case it saved the novel for me.

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About Ryū Murakami

Ryū Murakami is a Japanese novelist and filmmaker. He is not related to Haruki Murakami or Takashi Murakami.

Murakami's first work, the short novel Almost Transparent Blue, written while he was still a student, deals with promiscuity and drug use among disaffected Japanese youth. Critically acclaimed as a new style of literature, it won the newcomer's literature prize in 1976 despite some observers...more

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Books by Ryū Murakami

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Quotes from Almost Transparent Blue

“Yeah, he'd said, maybe it's just my idea, but really it always hurts, the times it don't hurt is when we just forget, we just forget it hurts, you know, it's not just because my belly's all rotten, everybody always hurts. So when it really starts stabbing me, somehow I feel sort of peaceful, like I'm myself again.” — 6 people liked it

“And just because I've written this book, don't think I've changed. I'm like I was back then, really.” — 5 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14287.Almost_Transparent_Blue?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348961366l/14287.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14287.Almost_Transparent_Blue?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Almost Transparent Blue by Ryū Murakami[/url]

Almost Transparent Blue

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