Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Coin Locker Babies

by Ryū Murakami, Stephen Snyder (Translator)

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 2,244 ratings · 147 reviews

A surreal coming-of-age tale that establishes Ryu Murakami as one of the most inventive young writers in the world today.
Abandoned at birth in adjacent train station lockers, two troubled boys spend their youth in an orphanage and with foster parents on a semi-deserted island before finally setting off for the city to find and destroy the women who first rejected them. Bo...more

Paperback, 393 pages

Published August 9th 2002 by Kodansha (first published 1980)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

Best Japanese books

28th out of 386 books — 1,282 voters

The Summer of the Ubume by Natsuhiko Kyogoku

Flavorwire's Contemporary Japanese Writers You Should Know

19th out of 41 books — 24 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Jul 28, 2011 Mariel rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: the glitter fairy

Recommended to Mariel by: komakino

It's the sound of a coin dropping. It's so loud you could hear a lot of dimes that you get for all the times shitty stuff happens. Those dimes can buy a chinese finger trap of societal problems, or a coloring book. The sound of a baby wailing. The moms aren't going about their business and pissing off everybody else because they have left them in the coin lockers in the train stations of Japan. That's WAY worse than the parents who leave their kids in libraries or toy stores and expect the emplo...more

17 likes · like · see review

Nov 27, 2012 Marvin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

I already knew that Ryu Murakami likes to delve into areas that most readers would find uncomfortable, but Coin Locker Babies leaps head first into a socio-psychological pool of toxics that will probably send most readers running for the relative safety of Fifty Shades of Gray. Coin Locker Babies is one of those books like American Psycho and We Need to Talk About Kevin that alternately repulses and amaze. I found it to be a surreal mixture of horror, social commentary and dark comedy that never...more I already knew that Ryu Murakami likes to delve into areas that most readers would find uncomfortable, but Coin Locker Babies leaps head first into a socio-psychological pool of toxics that will probably send most readers running for the relative safety of Fifty Shades of Gray. Coin Locker Babies is one of those books like American Psycho and We Need to Talk About Kevin that alternately repulses and amaze. I found it to be a surreal mixture of horror, social commentary and dark comedy that never let up and kept me dubiously entertained until the very bizarre end.

The plot involves two boys in an orphanage that were abandoned as infants and found in bus station coin lockers. I've been told that this was actually a real problem in Japan in the 80s. They are adopted together and become like brothers with a common goal of finding their mothers and killing them. Eventually them both end up in Tokyo with one becoming a cross-gendered rock star and the other taking up with a model with a crocodile obsession. The novel takes many detours often straying into back stories about the minor characters with exquisite detail. Much of Murakami's description of fictional parts of Tokyo, like an area called Toxitown, borders on the fantastical yet the plot remain depressingly mired in reality. I became very attached to the coin locker babies, Kiku and Tashi, who are both forbidding and likable. Many reviewers complained that the author sidetracked into rambles often yet I found his descriptive detours always entertaining and always adding something to the story.

Of Murakami's novels, I see this as being his current masterpiece. While In The Miso Soup may be the more readable and possibly even more shocking, Coin Locker Babies is his most involving novel combining the dark comedy of Miso Soup with the stream of consciousness of Almost Transparent Blue. Is Coin Locker Babies the one to start with? Probably not. But if you find yourself liking his other novels of insanity and horror, you should love this one.(less)

9 likes · like · see review

May 22, 2012 Kristen rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. DATURA. PENIS. RICE OMELETTE. DATURA. HASHI. COIN LOCKER. KIKU. DATURA.

If you were thinking about reading this book, don't bother. I've just summed it up for you.

This is quite simply one of the most pointless, irrelevant, and disheartening books I've read. In fact, I gave up after 200 or so pages. While Murakami can certainly string sentences together to create labyrinthian descriptions and the plot is original, there's no heart or soul. There's little to captivate or move the reader, in fact,...more DATURA. PENIS. RICE OMELETTE. DATURA. HASHI. COIN LOCKER. KIKU. DATURA.

If you were thinking about reading this book, don't bother. I've just summed it up for you.

This is quite simply one of the most pointless, irrelevant, and disheartening books I've read. In fact, I gave up after 200 or so pages. While Murakami can certainly string sentences together to create labyrinthian descriptions and the plot is original, there's no heart or soul. There's little to captivate or move the reader, in fact, I found myself only mildly disgusted and apathetic during my reading.

Kiku and Hashi are found abandoned in coin lockers as infants. They are brought up in a GOOD orphanage and are well-provided for, even taken on trips and given presents. Their good fortune extends to being adopted by a perfectly sane, nice couple who live on an island. They're given every opportunity to thrive and become normal adults, but the two are so self-pitying that all they can do is bemoan the fact that they were abandoned as infants. Kiku takes up pole-vaulting and beating people up, but not much else... No personality, no long-term goals. Hashi, somewhat more interesting than his brother, becomes a singer/prostitute and pursues a music career. They both wind up in Toxitown, a BIZARRE chemically-treated area of Tokyo teeming with freaks and hobos.

Honestly, why should anyone give a shit about these two freaks? They've been given everything they need to have decent lives, and they do nothing but fixate on their biological mothers. They're not interesting, kind, humorous, or driven to do anything but whine and moon around. Kiku and Hashi lead dirty, aimless lives. They don't seem to care much about other people, and Murakami's insane side characters are far more interesting.

I can only guess that they cling to their coin locker beginnings as a way of holding themselves apart, as something special. Hashi replaces much of that with his singing career, enjoying the illusion, living on the recognition and "uniqueness" of being a singer. He becomes furious when he runs into anyone who knew him before his star rose, only because he can't stand being seen as anything but a musical prodigy. Ego. Kiku is simply a dullard. I couldn't figure out why Anemone even wanted him around. He was a freakish premature ejaculator during their first sexual encounter, does nothing but let her cook for him, and what does he get her for Christmas? AN OMELETTE RECIPE BOOK, so she'll know how to make HIS favorite dish: rice omelettes. Why should a gorgeous, interesting, and eccentric woman like Anemone want a boring, selfish dud like Kiku? It boggles me, but then again a Japanese man wrote this book. I'm assuming there's a cultural difference that I'm just not understanding.

To top it off, Kiku comes face to face with his birth mother and blows her head off. Great! No answers, no explanations, no apologies. Wham bam, thank you, ma'm! Way to go, buddy.

I sound like I hate this book, but that's not the case. I simply can't fathom how someone as lauded as Murakami created something so utterly lacking, so pointless that I had to fight to keep my eyes on the page. I've read worse, but I finished THOSE books. This book is hollow in a way I'm not accustomed to. My advice? Move along because there's nothing to see here.

(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Mar 25, 2011 Yulya Slomianowska rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ce n'est pas facile de se sentir vivant, quand on a commencé sa vie dans un cercueil. En témoigne le destin terrible de Hashi et Kiku, ces deux orphelins abandonnés à la naissance dans une consigne automatique, et qui devront chercher jusqu'en Enfer le droit d'exister. L'Enfer c'est Tokyo, personnage à part entière du roman, et immense papier tue-mouche piégeant ces insectes innombrables qui s'y égarent, s'y cognent, et s'y accrochent inlassablement. Ils sont si nombreux et bruyants, c'est à en...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 29, 2009 christa rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm guessing a lot of people wouldn't make it past the first sentence of Ryu Murakami's novel "Coin Locker Babies." On the other hand, it serves as a sort of litmus test: if you can get past that sentence, you can get through the rest of it. The gauged eyeballs, exposed brains that look like tofu, and part where a character takes a scissors to his own tongue.

This novel is the anti-coming of age novel. It's the story of Kiku and Hashi. Both were discovered stuffed into boxes and left for dead in...more I'm guessing a lot of people wouldn't make it past the first sentence of Ryu Murakami's novel "Coin Locker Babies." On the other hand, it serves as a sort of litmus test: if you can get past that sentence, you can get through the rest of it. The gauged eyeballs, exposed brains that look like tofu, and part where a character takes a scissors to his own tongue.

This novel is the anti-coming of age novel. It's the story of Kiku and Hashi. Both were discovered stuffed into boxes and left for dead in coin lockers. They meet at an orphanage and forge a friendship through their shared survival. Kiku plays the role of fixer: he kicks some asses and becomes really good at the pole vault; Hashi is more timid. And when he leaves home to find his birth mother, he lands in an uninhabitable area in Tokyo called "Toxitown" where he sells his body to men, and eventually meets one who can help further his career as a singer.

Chaos follows. Kiku ends up in jail, Hashi goes crazy. Kiku's girlfriend Anemone watches a truck run over her pet alligator. Hashi decides he is straight. It's all very complicated, and at parts becomes too much to handle. My favorite moments involve rice omelets, the favorite meal of both Kiku and Hashi: mix rice with ketchup and peas, put it in an omelet. And also descriptions of Hashi's voice, which seeps into the core of the listener and brings back their most primal memories. He is able to manipulate emotions through his tunes.

I love Ryu Murakami. In the days after reading "In the Miso Soup," I missed the story. The entire world felt like those minutes after you take off your roller skates and still kind of feel like you're skating, while you're trying to adjust to normal, lackluster walking. I had read the book while I walked from here to there in the skyway downtown, and even now, when I'm walking that route it reminds me of the feeling of reading that book.

I'm trying to think of something to compare Murakami's work to, and the only thing I can think of in pop culture is the TV show "Nip/Tuck." Graphic, barfing, seedy mattresses, unpredictable, stabbing, gory, and -- surprisingly -- funny. Murakami doesn't blink when a character sticks a knife into his pregnant wife's protruding belly. His characters have a sexual repertoire where missionary style doesn't even register. And where a lesser writer wouldn't be capable of writing a believable character with a pet alligator, he invents a model who's entire apartment caters to the beast -- humidifiers, tropical plants, raw meat dangling from a stick -- and makes it less likely that she wouldn't have a pet alligator.

This book isn't as great as "In the Miso Soup," but that is the fault of the length and the plot -- which gets a little too WTF in the wrong kind of way. The writing remains stunningly descriptive and still made me want to barf. (less)

6 likes · like · see review

Jun 23, 2012 Stephen Wallant rated it 5 of 5 stars

OK WTF GOODREADS. I wrote a WHOLE REVIEW For this book and now it is gone? Nothing works around here. Fix this site, fix this site. Fix IT!

My review was SO GOOD. I opened with this understated, subtle movement. Sort of an overture. And then BAM, I am in your head, and in this book and you have never read anything like this! (my review!) It's like was this a review? Or am I living in some kind of dream. And I'm never going to go back to my shitty regular life again. It was like the Entertainment...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 01, 2011 Joshua Rupp rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-reviews

Ryu Murakami is one of the best writers to come out of the 20th century. While everyone else was poncing around griping about causes and who should be occupying what, Murakami, like Ginsberg with a sense of humor, was willing to quietly watch all the people he knew descend into hysteria and madness before either killing themselves or getting jobs with ties. His work focuses on disaffection, and the lengths people will go to - individually and culturally - to find out what the hell they're doing...more

3 likes · like · see review

Nov 30, 2010 Yomi Mashou! rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: To anyone with an open mind

I read this book first in English, then picked up the original when I went to Japan. While it is an English translation of the Japanese version, this book is still my favorite. I've read it three times, on three separate occasions and was still enticed by it.

To me, Murakami Ryu is the Takeshi Miike of books. He's so sick and perverted in this book, it's creative. I love Kiku; he's smart in a mental, logical kind of way. Hashi sometimes reminded me of someone I knew, which isn't bad; an androgyno...more

like · see review

Jun 10, 2009 Fiona McCandless rated it 4 of 5 stars

I can't quite date when I first picked up Murakami's 'Coin Locker Babies'. During the long period of reading this book I had to force myself to put it down and not touch it for a decent period of time. Coin Locker Babies is so dark and desperate that I thought it better if I didn't read it for a while. The images it conjures up - though impossible - are so vivid, and will stay with me for a long time.

Japanese rockstar 'Miyavi' wrote a song 'Coin-lockers baby'. The song and the book by Murakami a...more I can't quite date when I first picked up Murakami's 'Coin Locker Babies'. During the long period of reading this book I had to force myself to put it down and not touch it for a decent period of time. Coin Locker Babies is so dark and desperate that I thought it better if I didn't read it for a while. The images it conjures up - though impossible - are so vivid, and will stay with me for a long time.

Japanese rockstar 'Miyavi' wrote a song 'Coin-lockers baby'. The song and the book by Murakami are in no way related, besides their similar sinister subject matter. After I had heard that Ryu Murakami had written a book about new-born babies abandoned in train station coin lockers, I began researching where these artists may have got their inspiration from.

There is an urban myth in Japan, that a mother abandons her new-born in a coin locker in a crowded Tokyo train station. Years later the woman returns to find a boy sitting alone by the lockers, crying. She is surprised that no one is comforting him, and asks him where his father is. The child replies "I have no father!". When the woman asks where his mother is, the boy points to the woman, and vanishes.

Like most myths, they are based loosely on fact. Babies have been found in coin lockers, the most recent found in a Shinjuku train station.

Murakami takes many urban legends and alters them to suit this story. Anemone's pet crocodile is reminiscent of the sewer alligators of America. The abandoned mining village protagonists Hashi and Kiku play in as children is not uncommon in Japan, as many buildings (haikyo) were abandoned after the Japanese economy slump. Many chemical weapons are still being discovered in Okinawa, although none so horrific as the novel's DATURA, due to the American occupation of Japan during and after the war. Although the events in the novel itself are somewhat unbelievable, Murakami truly suspends disbelief, and allows you to enter a world that is probably better left untouched.

Although I am tempted to rate this book five stars, the middle did loose its stamina a little. However, my desire to know how it would end kept me reading.

Like many Japanese authors - Haruki Murakami a good example - the characters in Coin Locker Babies are apathetic to their surroundings. Although desperate to find their mothers who abandoned them, they seem to have little involvement with their environment. The separateness of the characters adds to the mood of the novel, as both the characters and the metropolis Tokyo seem hopeless and somewhat pathetic.

On the topic of translation, I loved Stephen Snyder's interpretation of this work. It did not feel like I was reading a translation, and it had the right amount of obscene language (which is less common in Japanese) to make it believable in English. With such capable Japanese translators out there, it makes me wonder why Alfred Birnbaum's name appears on so many translated Japanese novels.

This book is beautiful in its description of Tokyo, of mother-son amae relationships, and being alone in a big city. If you can handle the graphic first page, you can probably manage the rest of the book. Japan, although it has one of the lowest crime-rates, and one of the highest levels of life expectancy, Murakami shows that there is still a sense of hopelessness which is presented perfectly in the act of silently abandoning your baby in a crowded coin locker.
(less)

6 likes · like · see review

Dec 07, 2012 Darran Mclaughlin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: japanese

A fairly interesting novel from a writer people always confuse with the more famous Haruki Murakami. Published in Japan in 1980 and finally translated into English in 1995 this novel follows the lives of two adopted brothers who were both abandoned in the coin lockers of the title as new born babies. Apparently there was a number of these cases in Japan in the 70's. The plot is pretty incoherent and the ending is quite abrupt and disappointing. I would say that the plot, such as it is, is simply...more

like · see review

Dec 19, 2006 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read a short story in the New Yorker by this, "the other Murakami," and I really liked it. (I think the story was called "I Am a Novelist.") So I got this book. It is the weirdest thing I have read in my entire life. I don't exactly recommend it. I don't exactly discourage others from reading it either. Just know what you're getting into. Or else stick to the other Murakami... Haruki... 'cause he's not so weird. Um. Yeah.

1 like · like · see review

Oct 29, 2011 Thevioletmaniac rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-reviews

В ожиданий перевода новый книг Чака Паланика и в виду желания, что хочется почитать что-то эдакое быстренько пробежалась по отзывам на разные книги и выбор пал на эту. Отзывы были, конечно, не самые похвальные, но мне-то, особенно после некоторых глав Паланиковского "Призраки" чего боятся.
Первое впечатление оказалось хорошим и довольно долго продержалось в этом же русле. Но что-то подсказывало во время прочтения, что скоро начнется то, от чего многим не понравилась эта книга... Я не противник в...more

like · see review

May 09, 2013 Nina rated it 3 of 5 stars

From the very first line you know this is not for the faint hearted. It's a morbidly fascinating concoction blending the chaos-riddled characters of Chuck Palahnuik's Survivor with all the despair and threat of Dante's Inferno and the hallucinatory quality of Trainspotting. Murakami plunges the depths of the most troubled and toxic of humanity presenting a devastating image of Tokyo's underworld and the savage insanity of it's inhabitants. Beneath this dark purgatory is just enough compassionate...more

like · see review

Apr 22, 2012 Gerald Kinro rated it 2 of 5 stars

Kiku and Hashi are abandoned at birth and left in adjacent train station lockers. The two boys spend their childhood in an orphanage and then with foster parents on the Island of Kyushu. They are later drawn to Tokyo to find and destroy the women who abandoned them.
This is a dark, bizarre coming of age novel set in Japan during the 1970s and 1980s. Murakami effectively creates a noir mood and illustrates the lonely, seedy side of Japanese life in a section of the city called “Toxitown.” His cha...more

like · see review

Dec 05, 2007 Jackie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Thought the descriptions in the book were pretty great.

Didn't find any of the characters particularly compelling, wasn't really interested in finding out what was going to happen with the plot. Didn't finish the book.

1 like · like · see review

Aug 09, 2011 Ury949 rated it 1 of 5 stars

I can't say much about this book except that it's extremely slow, and a little abstract. It's violent and most of it seemed pointless. I could never figure out why the author chose datura as an element of the plot, nor why it was always referred to in all caps. But it irritated me that most of the things written about it were false and made up. But I guess lots of things in this book were made up - like Toxitown and Anemone living with a crocodile.

I wasn't a big fan of any of the characters. I...more

like · see review

Jun 16, 2011 Marie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I don't know if it's a translation issue or just Murakami rambling but i did not enjoy this one as much as I thought I would. It had been built up so much that maybe I was expecting too much. While the plot is definitely original and I think Murakami does take real risks in this book rather than just writing the violent/gory scenes to add shock value, it was difficult for me to ge past the long, often stilted monologues and descriptions. I do think most of that is due to my own tendency to get h...more

like · see review

Nov 07, 2010 Manuel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: japanese-contemporary-fiction

This book is fucked up... in a good way. Through their adventures the author has a way of building up the action and then suddenly dropping a bomb on you, something terribly grotesque or horrible happens and you are left going OMG... and then the chapter is over.

Can't believe this was written in 1980. The "Toxitown" place seemed a lot like the futuristic/dystopic settings of a William Gibson novel. This is the first book I've read by this author and I'm looking forward to more. I can't describe...more

like · see review

Jun 15, 2013 Thalia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Before even reading this, I had to make fun of the very first review on the back of the novel because the reviewer's quotation seems to only convey that he knows how to combine a handful of hipster references for lack of a singular description of what he just read. The other reviewers quotations were more intriguing yet just as vague. Six weeks of reading is what it took me. Six weeks of learning that apparently being found in a coin locker after being alive for 16 hours is going to mess up with...more Before even reading this, I had to make fun of the very first review on the back of the novel because the reviewer's quotation seems to only convey that he knows how to combine a handful of hipster references for lack of a singular description of what he just read. The other reviewers quotations were more intriguing yet just as vague. Six weeks of reading is what it took me. Six weeks of learning that apparently being found in a coin locker after being alive for 16 hours is going to mess up with your modes of reason for the rest of your life. An event which you should have no memory of and any careful orphanage or foster parent should be in their best mind to conceal this from you. But, the fact that you know your mother abandoned you seems to be a crutch for you to take no responsibility for your actions, given that we are living in any sort of reality. The novel constantly reminds you that you are not. The main characters have several pivotal adult-situation events before the age of being an adult. They live in chaotic conditions which couldn't love them, but they somehow find love which they ultimately reject. They're spoiled. They act violently without a blink of an eye. They can calm their minds if they just make this one extra irrational move. In short, that first reviewer had it right the entire time. It's like "WTF did I just read?" It's like "These are the people who never lived and who do all the things you always dreamed of but reason and responsibility held you back". This book is too much a surreal fantasy, and although I can recommend it for its writing style and sheer fantasy, I cannot recommend it for having a lack of resolve. I had 10 pages left of the book and I thought "How are they going to wrap this up?". I don't think they ever do. But isn't that what makes everything under the sun "artistic" lately? Let the reader think for themselves. Let the reader discuss this with their peers.

Give me a few months...that's how long it usually takes for me to really gauge my opinion of any work. If I'm still thinking about this in 4 months from now, I'll give it a different review. If the film version of this actually does come out and the rumours become reality, I would see this film. I am also quite willing to give the author's other works a try. (less)

like · see review

Sep 29, 2010 Starrbooty rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: best-of-the-best, thoughtful

THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART.

It is full of drugs, violence, sex and all kinds of other goodies that dark little creatures such as myself find interesting.

The story follows two young boys who were abandoned hours after birth in coin lockers in southern Japan. From there, they grow up into two very different people, bonded together by the trauma of their past.

Murakami Ryu is known for pointing out social problems well before Japan acknowledges them, and in the 1970s, abandoning children...more

like · see review

Jul 09, 2009 Helene rated it 5 of 5 stars

What a mind game of a book. Although there were a few loose ends left in the book, Ryu Murakami wrote it all very beautifully. Grotesque and disturbing in some aspects, but, well, all the descriptions and careful wording helped bring the characters alive. The theme of the book seems to be a sort of "future vision" of Tokyo mixed into the shattered young lives of the two orphans. Murakami cleverly twists things up in the plot several times, but that allowed for me to feel more excited about "find...more

like · see review

Feb 21, 2012 Elizabeth Reuter rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ryu Murakami is famous for surreal stories containing almost torture-porn levels of gore, and Coin Locker Babies is no exception. Two babies are abandoned by their mothers in coin lockers (an idea taken from reality), then grow up as foster brothers. One, Kiku, becomes a violent athlete; the other, Hashi, an effeminate singer whose voice makes people sick upon hearing it, but then addicts them. Sometimes together, sometimes apart and looking for each other, Kiku and Hashi wander through settings...more

like · see review

Jan 04, 2013 Alice Radwell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: asian-culture, contemporary, socially-challenging, unique-read

This is a very strange read; strange in a way you wouldn’t expect. The story is weird, the characterisation is weird, the tone is weird, and yet somehow, it’s a novel that’s oddly consistent. There’s a lot going on here; a lot. The book is choc full of characters and plot changes, and the content isn’t easy to read in subject, style or structure. A quick summery would be ‘whack-a-doodle’, but unlike many Japanese contemporary novels known internationally, this is a form of ‘whack-a-doodle’ you w...more This is a very strange read; strange in a way you wouldn’t expect. The story is weird, the characterisation is weird, the tone is weird, and yet somehow, it’s a novel that’s oddly consistent. There’s a lot going on here; a lot. The book is choc full of characters and plot changes, and the content isn’t easy to read in subject, style or structure. A quick summery would be ‘whack-a-doodle’, but unlike many Japanese contemporary novels known internationally, this is a form of ‘whack-a-doodle’ you won’t quite comprehend for a large portion of the story. Seriously, it’s all kinds of ‘huh?’.

It’s obvious Murakami (no, not that Murakami, the other Murakami) is trying to make a bold statement, but there’s so much going on the message is often as easy to find as an elephant among elephants. There’s so much to take from the story that everything becomes a little washed out. Sometimes you’ll get the point of what is happening, and sometimes you won’t. Paragraphs have a habit of rattling on (to the point of skimming), and often minor details that needn’t have been included have three or four lines dedicated to them. However, it’s a guarantee, this isn’t a story you will have experienced before. It’s nice to read a book that isn’t afraid to go anywhere or do anything in terms of plot, and yet keeps its narrative comprehension entirely intact. The tone is almost flippant, like it doesn’t care what the reader will think, and in terms of matching its subject matter, it works really well. This style won’t be for everyone, and it does take some getting used to, but it’s very unique.

There are some grotesque scenes, but the tone of writing actually removes from the over-all shock value. Not all the violence seems necessary. There are definitely a few odd little sex scenes that could easily have been removed. Sometimes it felt like vile moments had been added simply for the ‘shock’ factor. If nothing else, Murakami (no not that Murakami, the other, other Murakami) definitely wants to shock. He doesn’t always succeed, especially as the book continues. It’s a very masculine read; not a single female character (major or minor) gets through the novel un-sexualised, and again, I’m not entirely sure if I grasped the point of this. Most of the characters are very unrealistic, especially the women; I found the female lead annoying and un-relatable, and most of the men fall into the same masculine-asshole stereotype, creating a flavourless lump where often one can’t be distinguished from another. Perhaps this was intentional? The main characters, however, are the drive of the story; it’s hard not to care about what happens to them, despite the fact they’re often unlikeable. Their tale is a backward coming-of-age story, stressing the issues of childhood trauma and identity. It’s a dance through male insanity, exploring matriarchal bonds. At least, that’s what I got.

If you like weird (really weird), and your into contemporary Japanese fiction give this a go; it’s unique, it has some well-written scenes, and it’s dark without being on an ego trip. You can take from it a number of interpretations, and the darker angle on Japanese culture is interesting. Give it a miss if you’re easily offended.

For more reviews visit http://aliceradwell.wordpress.com/
(less)

like · see review

Apr 20, 2012 Stephen M added it

Shelves: ocean-of-noise, you-can-do-better-than-me

Well.......

no rating because I only read 300 of the 400 pages. There was nothing particularly horrible about it, but it was taking me too much time to read and it's overdue, collecting fines. What can you do? C'est la vie.

It had its moments. Every now and then it would strike a certain theme or comment on something particularly profound. So this experience hasn't taken out any creditability on Murakami #2 which I'm glad about because I don't want my time with Ryu to be over.

That being said, this...more

10 likes · like · see review

Sep 16, 2011 Gergely rated it 4 of 5 stars

I can really count on Ryu Murakami to cook up a tale that I can barely take, but still cannot put it down. I think I will trying to figure out this story for a while as well.

When reading there were a couple of impressions I had:

This is a really busy novel in that sense that almost every character, from the important ones down to the really episodic ones have a background we came to know. This makes the story flow slower but also more intimate.

From the descriptions of people's experience, what di...more

like · see review

Feb 06, 2013 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: big-red-circle

This is it:
"His tongue clicking sharply into the mike, Hashi reeled off the names of the band members as shreds of glittering foil rained from the ceiling marking the end of the concert. 'Thank you. Thank you,' he murmured. 'We couldn't do it without your love. Tonight I want you to pray with me for the souls of three girls attacked in a park in Yokohama almost seventy years ago. A sailor on leave butchered them, gouged out their stomachs, and jerked off inside those hollow things. Tonight, let...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 11, 2008 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2008, asian

This book is full of ‘what the…?’ moments that catch you totally off guard. But these moments do not come across as gimmicky. Murakami, the Ryu one, not the Haruki one, weaves a pretty dark, yet humorous Japanese landscape. Two babies are found locked in station coin lockers and grow up together; first in an orphanage, then on an island, then splitting ways, both terribly messed up.

The opening line was the most disturbing I’ve ever read in a book and the story took off full of gristle and bone....more This book is full of ‘what the…?’ moments that catch you totally off guard. But these moments do not come across as gimmicky. Murakami, the Ryu one, not the Haruki one, weaves a pretty dark, yet humorous Japanese landscape. Two babies are found locked in station coin lockers and grow up together; first in an orphanage, then on an island, then splitting ways, both terribly messed up.

The opening line was the most disturbing I’ve ever read in a book and the story took off full of gristle and bone. Unfortunately, Ryu lost focus around the middle of the book. His pace fell off, the texture turned from gritty and gristly to a bland, tasteless pudding. He did regain a little form in the end but by then it was too late.

Still an enjoyable read. Here's a passage before the book turned to pudding:

They went back to the hotel exhausted. In the elevator, the cleaning woman was wiping down the walls. Though quite elderly, her hair was dyed, and she wore dark eyeliner and bright red lipstick that filled the deep wrinkles around her mouth.

"Hot, isn’t it?" she said to Kazuyo.

"And terribly sticky, " answered Kazuyo pleasantly as the old woman spat in her mop bucket.

"Hey, by the way, you two find anything weird in you toilet?" she asked suddenly. "Those Filipino whores been throwing some pretty strange stuff down the johns. It’s a bitch having to clean them out. Rubbers you expect, but this is getting ridiculous."

The elevator had reached the fifth floor, but when Kazuyo and Kiku got off, the woman left her bucket and mop and followed them.

"Good night, then - we’re pretty tired, " said Kazuyo, trying to slip into the room, but she grabbed her arm.

"I’m finding these big wads of pubic hair - must be shaving down there. Clogs up the pipes and I have to clean it out by hand. But that’s not the worst of it. A while back I found eggs stopping up one toilet, and I don’t mean chicken eggs. It was frog eggs - these huge frog eggs. Well, I thought that was a bit peculiar, so I did some asking around and found out those Filipino girls keeps the frogs as sort of special pets, real special. Seems they like to stick them up inside themselves... feels good and squishy. But somebody’s got to clean up after them, and what kind of job is that - pulling frog eggs out of a toilet?... Goddamn Filipino hookers and theri goddamn frogs... I ask you!" Bursting into tears, the maid held tight to Kazuyo’s arm. Her mascara began to run and black canals formed along her wrinkles.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jan 24, 2008 Ririenz rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiksi-psikologi

In The Miso Soup adalah salah satu karya fiksi dari seorang maestro thriller-psikologi, Ryu Murakami. Novel ini menceritakan tentang perjalanan seorang pemandu wisata seks, bernama Kenji selama tiga hari dengan seorang turis Amerika yang identitasnya tidak jelas bernama, Frank. Dengan dipandu oleh Kenji, Frank melakukan wisata seks di Kabuki-Cho sampai dia bisa mendengar Joya-no-kane di malam pergantian tahun. Kadang kala dalam waktu yang tidak panjang manusia bisa mengalami berbagai rentetan pe...more In The Miso Soup adalah salah satu karya fiksi dari seorang maestro thriller-psikologi, Ryu Murakami. Novel ini menceritakan tentang perjalanan seorang pemandu wisata seks, bernama Kenji selama tiga hari dengan seorang turis Amerika yang identitasnya tidak jelas bernama, Frank. Dengan dipandu oleh Kenji, Frank melakukan wisata seks di Kabuki-Cho sampai dia bisa mendengar Joya-no-kane di malam pergantian tahun. Kadang kala dalam waktu yang tidak panjang manusia bisa mengalami berbagai rentetan peristiwa yang berhubungan dengan kehidupan pribadi beserta budaya yang melekat pada dirinya. Hal seperti inilah yang dialami oleh Kenji dan Frank.

Perkenalan Kenji dengan Frank diawali oleh kalimat sapaan dalam bahasa Inggris : My name is Kenji, sambil berfikir apabila kalimat yang sama diucapkan dalam bahasa Jepang untuk segala macam kondisi. Setelah perkenalan yang agak canggung itu akhirnya Frank dan Kenji setuju untuk berbisnis. Kenji harus memandu Frank selama tiga hari untuk menikmati hiburan malam di Kabuki-Cho. Awalnya kerja sama antara Frank dan Kenji tidak menimbulkan masalah walaupun mereka sadar kalau ada perbedaan budaya yang menimbulkan perbedaan sudut pandang dan pemahaman antara mereka berdua. Semua berjalan baik-baik saja seperti kesepakatan yang telah dibuat. Tetapi lama-kelamaan Kenji merasa ada yang janggal pada diri Frank yang membuatnya cemas. Kenji menemukan berbagi keanehan yang terjadi selama kebersamaanya dengan Frank. Bukan faktor perbedaan budaya yang membuat Kenji cemas tapi lebih kepada faktor personality yang diungkapkan Frank dalam berbagai kesempatan. Ekspresi wajah Frank yang datar bila berada di keramaian dan juga ekspresi wajah yang cepat berubah membatu bila dirinya merasa terdesak selalu menggangu pikiran kenji. Dan parahnya kenji tidak dapat menyimpulkan dengan kata-kata ketika dia mengungkapkan pikirannya kepada Jun-kekasihnya.

Ketika membaca sebuah artikel di surat kabar yang mewartakan tentang pembunuhan mutilasi seorang anak SMA yang kemudian potongan tubuhnya dibuang ke berbagai tempat sampah yang ada di Kabuki-Chan, terlintas dalam benak Kenji sosok Frank. Meskipun tidak ada bukti untuk menaruh curiga, tetapi Kenji merasa yakin bahwa Frank-lah dalang dari pembunuhan mutilasi itu. Tetapi kecurigaan dan kecemasan itu tidak lantas membuat Kenji membatalkan perjanjian yang telah disepakati oleh mereka berdua. Dan Kenji selalu mengungkapkan kecemasan serta kecurigaannya terhadap Frank kepada Jun. Pertama Kenji merasa aneh dengan lembaran uang yang 10ribu Yen yang terlihat ada noda seperti darah. Kedua potongan yang melekat di pintu kost-an Kenji yang diyakininya merupakan sayatan dari kulit manusia.

Ternyata firasat Kenji menjadi kenyataan karena pada hari kedua keanehan yang ditunjukkan dalam setiap tingkah laku Frank akhirnya terbongkar juga. Pertama adalah adanya sayatan pada pergelangan tangan kiri Frank yang merupakan tanda bekas percobaan bunuh diri. Selain itu, ternyata Frank juga mempunyai kemampuan untuk menghipnotis orang lain. Tetapi dari semua kejadian itu yang membuat Kenji sangat shock adalah ketika Frank membantai lima orang wanita penjaja seks, seorang bartender. seorang pelayan, seorang laki-laki hidung belang dan seorang laki-laki yang juga pemilik Pub omiai. Frank ternyata seorang pembunuh berdarah dingin, dia lihai sekali dalam menaklukkan setiap mangsanya. Kenji menyaksikan semua kekejian Frank dengan tubuh membatu tak berdaya. Dunia Kenji serasa berputar karena Frank menyajikan sebuah tontonan yang sangat keji lagi menjijikan.

(to be continue....)(less)

like · see review

Jan 20, 2008 Robert Beveridge rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished, best-i-read-2004-edition, favorites

Ryu Murakami, Coin Locker Babies (Kodansha, 1995)

For thirty years, Japan has waited for someone to step up and fill the rather sizable shoes left by Yukio Mishima when he committed suicide after a failed attempt at a coup d'etat. It seems that Ryu Murakami has finally stepped up for the job.

Mishima's work was singular in that it combined the beauty and spareness of haiku with random, seemingly meaningless (until one looked below the surface) acts of despair and violence. Murakami treaded these w...more Ryu Murakami, Coin Locker Babies (Kodansha, 1995)

For thirty years, Japan has waited for someone to step up and fill the rather sizable shoes left by Yukio Mishima when he committed suicide after a failed attempt at a coup d'etat. It seems that Ryu Murakami has finally stepped up for the job.

Mishima's work was singular in that it combined the beauty and spareness of haiku with random, seemingly meaningless (until one looked below the surface) acts of despair and violence. Murakami treaded these waters in such previous works as Sixty-Nine and Audition while adding his own touches to the mix; in Coin Locker Babies, Murakami has fully assimilated the spirit of Mishima while simultaneously strengthening his own voice into something that is both complete and stunning.

Coin Locker Babies is the story of two brothers. Well, almost brothers. Both abandoned by heir mothers in bus station coin lockers as infants, the two are discovered and sent to the same orphanage, where they become inseparable. Adopted by the same couple, they grow up together on a southern island, but eventually return to the city to find their mothers. Along the way, one grows up to become a decadent pop star; the other, a disciplined pole vaulter. Yet the differences between the two are always overshadowed by their similarities as they progress through their lives.

Kiku and Hashi are destined to become two of literature's classic antiheroes. Angry, confused, incapable of understanding how their circumstances have molded them, the two stumble through life facing misfortune after misfortune, still somehow managing to come out in front of everyone else. They juggle their conflicting emotions with aplomb, being completely irratinoal much of the time yet without ever doing anything even remotely out of character. Murakami's deftness with the depths of his characters is easily on a par with that of Stephen King of John Irving (in fact, oftentimes when reading Murakami one is reminded of the scene in Garp where the child is looking out the psychiatrists' window and counting off the number of disabled people he sees on the street below), but his ability to take a seemingly unrelated stream of events and whip them into a coherent plot within a few pages far surpasses either of them. His writing is gorgeous, if somewhat less spare than Mishima's, and infused with a constant stream of gallows humor broken only temporarily by the wordless, wailing pain that underlies every page.

The various blurbs on the back of Coin Locker Babies (half from writers, half from filmmakers) praise Murakami as a Renaissance man for the new age, half cyberpunk and half manga, a mirror in which all of society can be seen. Murakami is all of these things and more (though one wonders, idly, if the reviewers have ever been exposed to Hideshi Hino); he stands, at present, as Japan's most brilliant writer whose works have been translated into English. (Now if only someone would translate Audition.) Coin Locker Babies may not be a perfect novel; it lacks that same indefinable something that keeps Kathe Koja's newest from achieving perfection. But it's close enough that it still rates five stars. ***** (less)

1 like · like · see review

Nov 21, 2007 Nathaniel rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-refuse-to-finish

This was an accidental purchase, made hastily in a used bookstore because the price seemed right and because the spine only said "Murakami." After about two paragraphs, it began to seem very unlikely that Harukai Murakami was responsible for the flavorless, graceless and awkward prose. I checked the publishing date and thought, well, okay, it was an early effort . . . I'll give it a chance. After ten pages or so, I gave the book the sort of thorough exploration that would have prevented me from...more

1 like · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Gunkanjima	2	20	Feb 10, 2013 02:02am

combine
Other Editions (19)

More editions...

Genres

Asian Literature > Japanese Literature

58 users

Cultural > Japan

40 users

Contemporary

12 users

Horror

9 users

Literature > Asian Literature

7 users

Literature

6 users

Novels

6 users

Literary Fiction

4 users

Cultural > Asia

4 users

Surreal

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

Grotesque
by Natsuo Kirino
All She Was Worth
by Miyuki Miyabe
The Face of Another
by Kōbō Abe
Sayonara, Gangsters
by Genichiro Takahashi
The Three-Cornered World
by Sōseki Natsume

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

More about Ryū Murakami...

Books by Ryū Murakami

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Coin Locker Babies

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from Coin Locker Babies

“Every one of a hundred thousand cities around the world had its own special sunset and it was worth going there, just once, if only to see the sun go down.” — 55 people liked it

“They don't realise that they've changed; they think it's the world that changed.” — 16 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Coin Locker Babies
avg rating	preview: Coin Locker Babies Goodreads rating: 3.83 (2244 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14289.Coin_Locker_Babies?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1368219067l/14289.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14289.Coin_Locker_Babies?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Coin Locker Babies by Ryū Murakami[/url]

Coin Locker Babies

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website